With Rooney signing a 5-year contract at the end of a turbulent week for Manchester United, a consensus is building that ‘the right thing happened, albeit in the wrong way – everyone is a winner in the end’
Alan Hansen even said on Match of the Day yesterday: “Manchester United need Wayne Rooney more than Wayne Rooney needs Manchester United.”
That is simply not true. Let’s not forget that Manchester United is one of the biggest and best football club’s in the world and has been winning trophies consistently for three decades. Manchester United doesn’t need any player more than he needs them.
Winners and losers in this sorry saga
Wayne Rooney has won. He has, according to different newspapers, doubled or tripled his salary and potentially got Manchester United to promise him that it will sign top players next summer.
It is the manager’s job to seek those assurances and not a single player’s. What happened? Did David Gill and Manchester United suddenly change its mind and say, ‘yes we agree Wayne, your team mates aren’t good enough and we will sign a load of new players in the summer. Thanks for bringing that to our attention....Can you please sign this now, it should make you the richest 24-year-old in the world?’”
As sad as it is, I don’t imagine it is too far from the truth.
Alex Ferguson, perhaps for the first time, has lost. Yes he has kept his best player. But it is at the expense of the rule that has made him so distinguished as a manager - no player is bigger than the club. The likes of Jaap Stam, Roy Keane and David Beckham have all fallen foul of this and been given a firm hand shake and shown to the door for undermining the club and manager. Their careers were never the same again.
As soon a Rooney publicly said he didn’t want to play for Manchester United and followed that by disrespecting his team mates he should have been given the same treatment regardless of how good he is. Anything different undermines the club’s credibility and heritage.
Roy Keane earlier in the week gave the perfect response which would have been welcome in a Manchester United press conference. “'Don’t worry or lose any sleep over Manchester United. They will be fine. They will be as strong as ever," he said with a confident, wry smile. And they would have been. I just hope this situation doesn’t let anyone forget that.
Forgiving the greatest
The one scenario in which Rooney might have deserved forgiveness is if he actually thought he had made a mistake and damaged an institution bigger and more important than himself. However I don’t genuinely believe this is the case. He’s now on holiday celebrating a pay rise per week that is equivalent to five times my yearly salary and in terms of fan pressure; well Andy Dunn from the NOTW perhaps puts it best:
“...Fan power – or fan intimidation – might have been a factor in the U-turn. Yeah right.
Rooney is from Croxteth, not far from the safari park, where – when asked what might happen if they lions escaped a local councillor replied: “Well, they will just have to take their chances like everyone else.”
If you think him and his family of hard-knocks and accomplished boxers were intimidated by a mob of imported scallies and the latte-swilling locals of leafy Cheshire, I think you’re mistaken.”
More than anything though I am an English football fan and want to see the national side be successful. Rooney is obviously key this. I will forgive, forget and worship Rooney once more as soon as he starts punching in the goals. But it’s a shame he’s undermined British biggest football club and the world’s greatest manager for a pay rise.
