Wayne Rooney - the most criminally overrated player since Beckham

[boundngag]

I am so sick of all the talk of Wayne Rooney! Apparently, it's some sort of national disaster that Rooney is out injured and will miss two England qualifiers! I've got news for you - it isn't. Has Rooney ever delivered for England? No. Does he ever deliver against good teams? No. Does he ever deliver at international tournaments? No. Does he ever deliver against the good club teams when playing for Man Utd? No. The reason for this is not down to factors such as bad luck, poor form (unless this it is counted as 'poor form' when it stretches over whole seasons) or injuries, it is because of one simple reason. Wayne Rooney is not and never has been world class. Has Britain not learnt anything since Sven thought Beckham was absolutely brilliant, attempted to build a whole team around him and failed to realise that Beckham was not actually that good? English people just choose to delude themselves that he is, because, being England, it surely can't be possible that we are just not capable of producing world class footballers. In my humble opinion, the last world class player we produced was Paul Gascoigne. Yes, really that long ago. World Class footballers today include, in my humble opinion, Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta, Cristiano Ronaldo and Xavi. Is Wayne Rooney as good a player as any of those? I for one do not think so. For all anyone knows, Ferguson brought Van Persie (I saw him on Match of the Day wearing a Man Utd shirt last night. It made me feel sick. It just looked so very wrong) to replace Rooney, rather than to play with him. If he does, probably only Man City would stump up the money. I don't think he's good enough to get in the Barcelona or Real Madrid teams. Roy Hodgson should look at Rooney's record against big clubs, for England, his injury record and his disciplinary record and decide not to build his team around him. In my humble opinion, that's the way forward. Everyone seems to think that qualifying for the next world cup will be easy. But the fact of the matter is that England are not that good anymore and could struggle, especially if Hodgson attempts to build the team around Rooney.

[John]

Well said Bound, very well said. The British media have been in adulation of Rooney ever since he started to perform at Everton, the media just can't get enough of Rooney..perhaps the penny has finally dropped with Fergie who I kind of think is hoping to offload Rooney but I don't think many (if any) clubs will pay £40 million and £200,000 a week for the guy. Incidentally, do you remember Rooney saying "Once a Blue, always a Blue" and then doing the offski to Utd. That is very poor form imo.

RVP going to Utd is sickening. Again, we a have a professional footballer (average of 6 goals per season in his first 6 seasons at Arsenal!) who turns in a great season just before his contract is up. He was on MOD kissing the badge for the club every other game last season, saying he loves the club, but it seems just not enough to jump ship at his most opportune moment to earn a bit of extra cash.

It's also annoying that Wenger allows this to happen season after season. I read an interesting fact in that the 11 "big name" players that we have sold to our competitors in recent seasons had now amassed 44 winners medals, whilst at Arsenal, we have gotten none. It's a shocking stat but displays with clarity that you wont win anything if you keep selling your best players to clubs that compete directly with you in your league!

[boundngag]

John, do you remember him threatening to leave Man Utd and everyone saying that they wouldn't be able to challenge for trophies without him? Maybe the penny has finally dropped for Ferguson, but I agree with you, who would pay that amount of money for Rooney? Maybe Man City or PSG?

Arsenal selling their best players is frustrating, but I think Wenger gets a kick out of not spending money on wages. As I have said on here before (probably to a sickeningly frequent extent), I don't believe Wenger has ever liked spending money (maybe something to do with a degree in economics) and the new stadium and financial fair play initiatives were very convenient for him. I do also wonder how much he had to do with getting Kroenke on to the Arsenal board (also doesn't like spending money) and not Usmanov (willing to spend money). It seems like a bit of a coincidence to me.

I'm also disappointed by Song's departure. He was one of our better players last season and an effective defensive midfielder, stumbled upon in that role by chance by Wenger. I'd much rather that he had sold Walcott instead. Who's going to play defensive midfield now? Diaby has so far, but he is more of a naturally attacking player, while Frimpong and Coquelin aren't really proven over a whole season.

What do you make of our new signings? Cazorla looks like a good player. Podolski should be a good player, judging by how well he usually performs for Germany (at international level, he performs - unlike a certain Wayne Rooney!). I'm not sure about Giroud though. I've not seen a lot of him before he signed for us and he's missed quite a few chances already.

I'm also quite looking forward to Wilshere coming back, hopefully next month. However, that could potentially be disappointing, as Ramsey, Eduardo and Diaby have never really hit the same levels of performance since returning from long term injuries. Do you think Wilshere will fall into the same category?

[John]

I certainly do Bound, he was angling for a pay rise when he suggested he may move to City, and for the first time in his career I think, Fergie succumbed to player pressure. sad times for the professional game indeed.

Seeing players like Song and RVP move out the door onto bigger and better clubs just proves the point that Arsenal are a selling club and simply not in the upper echelons of the footballing fraternity any more. It's a shame as for a brief, fleeting moment some years back, we were more than the equal of Man Utd and most other clubs, competing for trophies season in and season out.

Cazorla looks excellent, Podolski I'm not completely convinced about. I'd like to see him slap Walcott up front, like he did with Henry, and give him a handful of games up there.

Still, whatever happens, I predict another season of dismal failure and perhaps even coming in outside the top 6 !!