Wayne Rooney

[boundngag]

As I have said before, I think that he's the most overrated player since Beckham. I think that he's always been over hyped (the right wing English press can't accept that England have no World Class players, so they over hype the players they do have). For me, in big games, for England and Man Utd, he has simply never delivered. There's a good reason for that - he simply is not as good as people claim.

The response of so-called football pundits to the now overwhelming evidence that he is not world class, is simply to repeat like a mantra 'Wayne Rooney is world class'. They never give any evidence or justification for this, they just repeat the phrase. It's the sheer arrogance of the implication that irritates me. The 'I used to play football, I know more than you'. No, you don't necessarily. Just playing football doesn't mean you know about everything it. Their basic intelligence level goes against this, for one thing. I am so sick of ITV commentators, in particular Clive Tyldsley's hyperbole 'great tracking back by Rooney', because he would never dare admit Rooney's having another poor game. It's all a bit Alan Partridge, loathing the general public and insisting to himself that he knows more than they do, however little this is backed up by reality.

Imho, the general public are not thick. They know what someone playing football poorly and continuing to fail to perform on big occasions looks like; simply picture Wayne Rooney. What a deserved kick in the teeth it must have been for him to state he is 'unhappy and confused' at Man Utd and only generate interest from Arsenal (in all likelihood, never likely to submit an actual bid) and Chelsea (who have only made one offer). At some point, football pundits will be obliged to admit to that Wayne Rooney isn't that good after all. Some of the particularly bad ones will probably, untruely, claim that they said that all along....

[John]

The Press love Rooney for some unknown reason. He has had some very good games for Utd, (one against Arsenal I can recall!) but he has hardley ever delivered for England. I believe he has the talent and skill but not the application. Often he returns from the summer break overweight and unfit and often he simply doesn't try hard enough. If he thinks he's been hard done by, he sulks and I think thats what were seeing now.

He is the most overated player in English football. If he was as good as the press suggest, wouldn't the giantes of European football be sniffing around him, the like of Barca, Real, PSG, etc?

[boundngag]

I find that quite funny too, John! The excuse the press use is that he wouldn't be able to adapt to life abroad, but how hard could it be? He's a millionaire footballer, who basically would have to do very little for himself and it would be in the purchasing club's interest to look after him and ensure that he adapted quickly. No; the reason they don't bid for him is much more simple than that - he isn't good enough! In my opinion, Man Utd were probably hoping that more clubs would be interested in Rooney this summer and so they would have been able to sell him by now. That's their problem - who would be interested in Rooney now? Not only is he an overrated player, but his wages and tendency to sulk as soon as things don't go 100% his way make him a liability.

This leads me to wonder a few things things things: Why does Mourinho want to sign him? With Lukaku, Ba and Torres (That would be my pecking order for them, too), they don't really need another central striker. If rumours are to be believed, Mourinho wanted to bring back Drogba when he first arrived. This sort of suggests that Rooney may be an Abramovic signing. Another is that, when Rooney threw his toys out of the pram the last time, do Man Utd wish they'd just let him join Man City (the only club interested in him at that time)? Also, everyone must have noticed how easily Van Persie turned up and usurped him. Yes, Van Persie is a good player, but surely, if Rooney is as good as the press repeatedly tell us he is, he should have found it more difficult?