As I awoke this morning to the news of a possible massive contract for United’s Wayne Rooney in order to keep Wazza at Old Trafford, it took me a bit to completely compile my thoughts. Here is a player that is 28 years old, in the type of run that, although impressive, is not even close to the best that Rooney has ever given. Because of injuries and various other occurrences, Rooney is on pace for his lowest goal tally since joining Manchester United and the Red Devils are about to invest the entirety of their future in their number 10.
Now, for any and all of the Red Devil faithful – take off the rose colored glasses. Rooney has done this to your club on several occasions and he seems to have a propensity for holding your club ransom in order to further his own ambition. Your club has the financial power and the stature to bring in any number of replacements that would cost your club a small portion of what Rooney is asking for, and yet the Red Devils seem hell bent on sticking with Rooney and any of the issues that he might bring. Now, at 28, there can still be three or more years playing at the top level of football for any player and we are currently watching that occur with many of the world’s biggest superstars. But, those players were still showing growth and improvement as the reached their late 20’s…Rooney (despite showing that he could be a great midfielder) on his best day simply looks to have reached the same heights of his mid 20’s. (Plus, this is probably the best window to still make some money off of the maligned striker…money you can reinvest to finish above 7th place)
For anyone outside of the walls of Old Trafford – Wazza might be worth the risk. So why can a different club take the risk on Rooney and yet United should pass on their star man? Because the English striker is 28…and this is probably the last contract that you would have to give him. Rooney will be too old to put your club in the same position as he has done with United and you could probably still move him for a decent price to an MLS club when he is in his early 30’s. Although I would think it unwise for him to be your best-choice striker, a team like Monaco or PSG that can surround Rooney with a great cast of players would be his best option. Plus, these teams can pay whatever they want to Rooney in order to get him to stop acting like a child and get him back on the pitch performing at his best. My favorite “it won’t happen, but it would be great if it did” situation would be if Rooney jumped back to Everton and helped them continue their move into the EPL’s elite…such a great story-line!
If United do hand Rooney this massive contract and they put even more faith in the player, I do truly hope that he stops acting like a mistreated child and that he starts playing at his best and looking his best for the Red Devils. There are a million upsetting things in the footballing world that I can deal with, but I CAN NOT deal with whiners. When Rooney starts pouting because he is only making a few hundred thousand pounds a week (poor Rooney), it drives me a bit up the wall. Move on United…and let him be someone else’s problem…
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