Today Alex Ferguson moved to reassure everyone that Wayne Rooney will still be at Manchester United next season, so let me tell you before anybody else does—Twitter, Facebook and Real World aside—that Paris Saint Germain will be lucky to have him. Yes, that’s right, at United, he’s a goner, of that there can be little doubt. He probably wasn’t left out of their lineup against Real Madrid on Tuesday to prove a point, but if anything that makes his situation at the club more hopeless: nobody at Manchester United is out to get Wayne Rooney; it’s more that nobody at Manchester United cares about Wayne Rooney. And for Wayne Rooney that must be quite hard to hear, because he is Wayne Rooney.
But if Wayne is having problems—deep, psychological problems: feelings of rejection, which in turn lead to feelings of isolation, which lead to feelings of hate, which lead to anger, which, of course, leads to the dark side—with coming to terms with his relegation to a role as Danny Welbeck’s understudy, superfluous even as a bench warmer now that heated seats are the norm, then perhaps the solution is to be found in how he approaches this thing. There are positives to be grasped even from the absolute worst situations, after all. I’m here to help, Wayne.
Obviously you could understand why he might be feeling negative. Sports writers have responded to United’s rejection of Wayne with a rejection of their own: by pointing out what a disappointment his career has been after early hype (produced by them). They’ve all gone with the ‘I’m not racist, but…’ style of argument, explaining that ‘it’s ridiculous to call someone who’s contributed heavily to four Premier League titles and a Champions League win a failure, but…’ he’s still a failure. That kind of negativity could push anyone into misery. Then there are the fans: the Manchester United Supporters Trust used the day after he was left out against Real to say that it would “probably be the right decision” to let him leave in the summer. Not so much kicking a man when he’s down as kicking a man when he’s just been dropped from the team to play against Real Madrid.
But amongst all that, there are indeed positives, or at least positive ways to interpret negatives. Take, for instance, the fact that nobody will ever take away the trophies he won with United and the contributions Wayne made to winning those trophies: no amount of ‘he’s won loads, but…’s can rewrite history so that those didn’t happen. He’s had a successful career. Okay, it does look as though it might be tapering off a little now, and perhaps the personal peaks could have been higher, but success is relative. Apart from me, everyone reading this will eventually have to accept being below Danny Welbeck in the Manchester United pecking order, and that’s without even the consolation of winning all of those titles. Personally, I’ve become so relaxed with success as a relative concept, I’ve begun to count getting out of bed as worthy of a pat on the back—I often reward myself by going back to bed. I’m in bed right now.
For Wayne, it might also be useful to disregard the idea of unrealized potential. Potential which is never reached is a highly spurious concept: ‘He had great feet but he didn’t have the right attitude’? Then he didn’t not achieve his potential; he reached whatever peaks that combination of good feet and bad head allowed for—he’d have to be another person in another reality for that to be different, and we don’t have access to that other reality. Yet. ‘He was perhaps the foremost writing talent of his generation but he drowned in a puddle of Tizer before he was 22’? Then that was what his potential allowed for; he was never going to do any different. Plus, he probably died doing what he loved.
You can see where this is going. Wayne Rooney need not be miserable. Misery is ostensibly a state of mind, not a set of circumstances. Unless you’re telling me that I’m wasting my life, sitting in a room, content—or even happy—to stare at myself in the mirror all day every day?
Maybe Wayne simply needs to make some other plans. Maybe it’s useful that he considers his options. For a man who isn’t that arsed about playing the best he possibly could have by indulging in pork pies and cigarettes, maybe he could try this: he could be a simply very good footballer for Paris Saint Germain or Real Madrid, and continue his life as if football was his job. He could do his job to the satisfaction of most people, and just go about his business without making too much eye contact in the shops and learning enough French or Spanish in order to say sorry when he accidentally makes eye contact with someone, all the while still earning £250,000 a week. Maybe he doesn’t care, or maybe he simply cares just enough.
I have sympathy for Wayne Rooney. Being told that Wayne Rooney is a failure when you are Wayne Rooney must be particularly hard. But he can get through this.
Friday Theo Walcott update
Theo Walcott has not played yet this week. His strongest performance to date this season.
Probably one of the most b.s. articles I have ever read.
Interesting and clever to replace the “e” and “t” in “best” with periods. But your syntax is garbage: “most best”? C’mon.
clever ^
well played sir.
this whole piece can be summed up in one word: troll.
WAYNE ROONEY IS A MANCHESTER UNITED LEGEND!!!
WHO WRITES THIS TRASH!?
Ethan Dean-Richards…
would you like anything else?
As a United fan, I’m actually offended by this piece. Yes, Welbeck was used ahead of Rooney in the fixture against, but that doesn’t mean Rooney is undervalued in any way, shape, or form. Rooney is integral to the United attack with his vision, his passing ability, and his striking. On the counter attack he might not be the best option anymore, but when United dominate play, he can open up defences in a snap. With 11 goals and 9 assists this season in the EPL, along with his willingness to come deep and defend whenever necessary, Rooney is United’s most complete player. This article is absolute crap and should not even be viewed by the general public, let alone footy fans. I am very disappointed in this blog at the moment, as I know that if Kristian Jack were here, he would not have supported this.
The sentence about getting out of bed. THAT deserves a pat on the back. Or at least an extra stint in bed.
Wow, you people take yourselves (and toungue-in-cheek articles) waaaay too seriously.
ManUnited fan (behind Spurs), and I thought it was pretty funny.
You should collectively switch to boxer shorts. Things seem a bit tight in your bathing suit area.
your fandom confuses me…bandwagon?
Fandom? Cuz I get somewhat tired of seeing knee-jerk comments that pretty much routinely shit on the guys who keep this site chugging? Okay.
There is obviously a less-than-serious tone to some of this article, yet the first 3 comments are: bullshit (cryptically acronymized), troll, and trash. I just find that there is a shitload of negativity in the CA/FB comments section these days. Whether it is Dan “just telling it liKe it is” or Didier LEADING US TO TRUTH VIA CAPITAL LETTERS, it just gets a bit old. And when it is from people who seem to miss at least some of the point of the article, I may comment on it, you know, cuz this is a comments section.
I come here because I enjoy the articles. Maybe there has been (IMO) a bit too much emphasis on racism and analytics in the last little while, but by and large I enjoy the read. Yet I see people who continuously berate the guys churning out footy content. It just gets tiresome.
As a United fan, I believe you should be a speech-writer for Sir Alex. With a few minor edits it would have been the perfect opening monologue for his presser today.
I got to this though,
“Friday Theo Walcott update
Theo Walcott has not played yet this week. His strongest performance to date this season.”
and had a serious laugh. this will be stolen and reused repeatedly.
Too many invalid arguments in the article..not sure where to start.
Wayne Rooney was not fit enough to play in this game. I have ben a utd fan since 1986 and i was not surprised to see him out of the lineup…people are reading too much into this. Rooney is one of the best players on earth and has been throughout his career.. I will only take Messi, Ronaldo and Iniesta ahead of him if i want to built a team…
If you thinkm he is a failure please name another plahyer you would take ahead of him and explain why.
it baffles me that this guy writes for the score and i am sitting at home reading his uneducated thoughts.
Time for me to join thescore network..
Is this a comments section to a different article? The overall tone seemed to be quite pro-Rooney/in defence of spud.
Bilal you’re not fit enough to lace this guy’s pubes, let alone boots. “Wayne Rooney was not fit enough to play in this game.” Of course he was. p.s happy 27th supporting Man Utd anniversary
Thank you. watched Liverpool dominate with Groubelar Molbi, Dalglish, Beardesly, Rush, Houghton…Bryan Robson with Olsen Whiteside, Stapleton, Strakhan..did what they could.
Rooney is a rythm player..he needs to be 100% fit to play at his best.
Sir Alex was brilliant..he played Rooney in that position to stop Coentrao and Ronaldo..he was ok tracking back but gave the ball away too easily. unlike Welbeck who played with a lot of confidence so he had to play the second game.
He just played Giggs for Rooney in that same position. He picked Giggs because he has been great recently and Rooney is not at 100% fit, simple as that.
Rooney is the only player who reminds me of Zidane. Great energy, can score, great passer, great vision..a leader and control player..when he is on, he can dominate.
It makes me smile every time someone calls me out for my footbal l(soccer) knoweldge.
Agreed. I also think Welbeck is more suited to running past RvP when he drops deep or out wide. A lot of the over-the-top passes that United used to counter wouldn’t have worked with Rooney.
OMG another bullshit article from this guy…….shocking