England embark upon their
latest World Cup qualification campaign in Moldovaon Friday but
once again the finest domestic footballer of his generation will be
missing. Indeed, Wayne
Rooney has been awol from international duty for
most of the past year, yet still he has never been out of the
headlines.
The latest revelations, taken from his new book, have an uncanny
timing, as the player himself raises concerns over his fitness and
longevity at the top level. They arrive at a moment when many
others are asking the same questions about Rooney's future,
following his most recent injury and the arrival at Manchester United of his fellow
superstar Robin van Persie. The gashed leg he suffered two
Saturdays ago as a substitute in the 3-2 defeat of Fulham, a game
for which he was dropped by Sir Alex Ferguson so that the former
Arsenal striker could make his first start, has ruled him out for a
month or more.
As a result Moldova, Tuesday's meeting with Ukraine and,
possibly, next month's qualifiers with San Marino and Poland could
all be yet more opportunities missed to increase his 29 goals from
76 caps. This injury is not Rooney's fault, of course. But a record
of one completed England match plus appearances in only two more
games in the past 12 months is. The red rage and recklessness that
have pocked Rooney's career were to blame for the two-game
suspension he incurred for stamping on a Montenegro player in a
Euro 2012 qualifier last October.
The three appearances since were in a warm-up for those
Championships with Belgium, the final group game in which Rooney
scored the winner against Ukraine – his first tournament strike in
eight years – and England's quarter-final penalty shoot-out defeat
to Italy.
From his lacklustre performances this summer, and the previously
disappointing displays at the World Cups of 2010 and 2006, a
conclusion can be drawn that Roy Hodgson will be fortunate if his
England side ever harness the barnstorming Rooney that terrified
defences as a teenager at Euro 2004.
Ten years at the top of the Premier League hurly-burly is an
exhausting length of time. Rooney began his personal decade as a
precocious 16‑year‑old already built like a cruiserweight – and
throughout the period has carried the fevered hopes of club, first
Everton and then United, and country. This is bound to wear.
Extracts from Rooney's My Decade in the Premier League admit all
this and more. They point to a player now conscious of his own
mortality and who is perhaps aware that Ferguson is monitoring the
miles clocked up by his prime forward. Explaining why he once
turned up to pre-season training half a stone overweight, he says:
"I drank a few bevvies while I was away. I'm stocky. I'm not like
Ryan Giggs, all bone and lean muscle. But I gain weight quite
easily. It's not a problem though. It's not as if the manager is
leaning over my shoulder as the numbers come in, tutting and making
jokes about me eating too many chip butties. Besides, I know I can
shift it in a week or two."
But he goes on to say: "Physically I've taken a bit of a
battering over the years; being lumped by Transformer-sized
centre-backs or having my muscles smashed by falls, shoulder barges
and last-ditch tackles, day in, day out, has left me a bit bruised.
When I get up in the morning after a game, I struggle to walk for
the first half an hour. I ache a bit. It wasn't like that when I
was a lad. I remember sometimes when I finished training or playing
with Everton and United, I'd want to play some more. But football
has had a massive impact on my body because my game is based on
speed, power and intensity."
Rooney is still England's best hope – he registered 34 goals for
United last season, his best ever return. He is only 26. But an
assessment of Ferguson's latest moves in the transfer market causes
the seasoned United observer – and, probably, Rooney – to wonder if
his 30th birthday will be marked at the club.
The £23m paid for Van Persie was primarily Ferguson's retort to
losing the title to Manchester City on goal difference. But the
Dutchman's arrival also secures United an indemnity. Beyond the
goals, Van Persie's lean frame and low-maintenance personality
persuaded Ferguson to pay a top price for a 29-year-old who has had
his injury problems. The thinking here runs that if Rooney were
sold in January or next summer for, say, £35m, then United would
recoup the fee paid for Van Persie (plus an extra £12m or so) and
remove his £250,000-a-week wage from the books, and the money could
be reinvested.
How likely is Rooney to move on? Next summer he will be
approaching 28 and will have two years remaining on the five-year
deal signed in October 2010. United cannot afford Rooney's contract
to enter its final season with his future undecided. If so, a
sizeable whack is wiped off his sell-on value, and United face the
prospect of a £27m player walking away for nothing in 2015.
The list of star operators moved on by Ferguson is well
documented, including Mark Hughes, Paul Ince, David Beckham, Ruud
van Nistelrooy and Roy Keane. While some of Rooney's unsavoury
incidents at United include marital misdemeanours and urinating in
the street, these have merely been distractions. It is his
questioning of the club, allied to episodes of wayward discipline
on the pitch, that have tested Ferguson's patience.
Rooney was awarded his latest contract after threatening to
leave due to his claim that United lacked ambition. He said at the
time: "I met with David Gill [the chief executive] last week [and]
he did not give me any of the assurances I was seeking about the
future squad. I then told him that I would not be signing a new
contract."
Rooney duly signed, then apologised to United fans. But his
relationship with supporters was weakened, and a sense of
disappointment with him was felt throughout the game. When Rooney
leapt into Premier League amphitheatres for Everton in 2002 he was
the street footballer whose instinct and raw spirit was an
unpackaged answer to the cosseted, cash-soaked modern player. After
the 2010 contract negotiations he emerged with an eye-watering pay
rise as just another product, a one-man corporation whose
relationship with Ferguson was not the same, either, even if the
manager has written the foreword to Rooney's new book.
The strain of their truce was illustrated last Christmas, when
Rooney was suspended for a night out after a win over Wigan
Athletic. He writes: "I'm happy at Manchester United, despite the
downs that sometimes take place at a football club. Like when we
stuff Wigan 5-0 on Boxing Day. I go out for dinner with a few of
the lads, and our other halves, to a hotel. The next day, the
manager pulls me and tells me he's not happy and doesn't feel I've
trained properly. He fines me, but there's worse. I'm dropped for
the next game, on New Year's Eve, against Blackburn.
"At a lot of clubs, people wouldn't bat an eyelid at players
having a night out six days before a game. But that's the
difference at Manchester United and a mark of the high standards
the manager demands. It's a big deal, another lesson learned." Yet
before those two disappointing displays for England at Euro 2012 he
was pictured on holiday in Las Vegas when prudence might have
guided him to be less visible.
Ferguson's strongest XI still has Rooney lining up behind Van
Persie in a 4-2-3-1 formation, and there are few striking
alternatives available for England and Hodgson. But time now ticks
for Rooney. He also writes: "I know football is such a short career
that one day, at any age, the game could be snatched from me
unexpectedly. So I want to decide when I leave football, not a
physio, or an opponent's boot."
Or, perhaps, these isles' greatest ever manager. One more
intriguing aspect of the book is who penned the foreword –
Ferguson. In doing so he gives the tome his and United's seal of
approval. No doubt, this came from an urge to help celebrate one of
more admirable best Premier League careers. And, the Scot, a canny
political operator, may have also scanned the passages about
fitness and the punishment taken by Rooney's body and considered
here was one way to prepare the ground for his potential
departure.