The Rooney Saga

The message to be discerned from the Wayne Rooney saga appears to be that the people around him want him sold.

News of the World readers, last week, were treated to a lengthy ‘football-only’ Q&A with Wazza, only two weeks after the paper had slaughtered him for his alleged antics with prostitutes Jennifer Thompson and Helen Wood.

The conspiracy theory that could arise is that the people who want him sold most are cash-strapped Manchester United themselves.

Saturday’s game with West Bromwich Albion saw the Reds let slip a two goal lead yet again, and a restless crowd calling for Rooney to spring from the bench. On Sunday morning the Sunday Mirror led with the scoop that Rooney was looking to leave Old Trafford. By Tuesday United fans were flitting on live web feeds of Sir Alex Ferguson’s Monday lunchtime press conference, as the embattled United manager and Chief Exec David Gill fended off the media in full force at a Unicef press conference.

The Telegraph’s ‘man’ reported an August tip-off he’d been unable to confirm: 50-50 from a reliable source that in the summer Wazza was offered a staggering £250k a week to join Manchester City, and was considering it.

The commentators weighed in, sagely. "When precocity collides with hedonism, agents tend to calculate that their star ought to make one big move before deterioration sets in. That way the whole camp can shake the money tree."

So a picture emerges. He’s messed up. The cottage industry surrounding him has contrived to use it to destabilise him. The Manchester United board could use the money.

News of the World readers, last week, were treated to a lengthy ‘football-only’ Q&A with Wazza, only two weeks after the paper had slaughtered him for his alleged antics with prostitutes Jennifer Thompson and Helen Wood.

Fans arriving for Saturday’s Premier League fixture with West Bromwich Albion snapped up the latest Red Issue, in which the froth ran that a team-mate could have stitched-up the England star to keep himself out of the back pages, Max Clifford style.

The suspicion is that a deal has been done with the press and that there is something being held back.

Sir Alex Ferguson may have made his reputation as the man who turfed out partiers from Lee Sharpe’s house and protected the young ‘Giggsy’ from the press. But in Wayne’s world the ability of the 68 year old to impose discipline could be thought to have declined. The impression is that Ferguson and Rooney want each other, and that Ferguson was prepared to discipline his wayward striker for his own good while at the same time protecting him from the press (in the familiar Ferguson fashion).

Is this Wayne Rooney?

I'm not bloody injured

By dropping him, while at the same time publicly backing him, the venerable United manager offered the quintessential portrait of himself. But it seems to have backfired and the two are at loggerheads.

There’s no doubt there’s sufficient instability at the club to envisage a swift transfer, either in January or at the end of the season.

What has come between Sir Alex Ferguson and Wayne Rooney is the opportunist influence of money on the unresolved demons of a football prodigy at a time of financial downturn: the speculators - those with a financial interest, and not least Rooney’s employers at Manchester United - are contriving to speculate that his star will burn out. He’s 24 years old, but he’s chunky, smokes and drinks, and all is not well at home.

Maybe this is Wayne Rooney?

Five years ago it might not have played out the same way, and might have been kept from the papers, but times in the last five years have changed. The money machine becomes hungrier as times get leaner.

The suspicion lingers that Wayne and Alex still love each other, really, but there’s a third, financially-motivated party in the marriage - and a shirt tail trapped somewhere in a door.

At the end of the day, as they say, the bills have to be paid. Or there’s no football club.

Of course shortly after this piece was posted a sad Sir Alex appeared before the press to announce that Wazzer wants out. "We've done all we can for the lad, whatever the problems," he said in a bemused manner. Apparently he wanted out after the World Cup, before the Ms Thompson stories were revealed.

The problem is that after this apparent betrayal of the fans it's hard to see how Rooney can even play before the transfer window in January. Certainly if he doesn't quickly come out and scotch rumours of him going to City. It's best for all concerned if Rooney gets the money back United invested him and then skips abroad.

As for this being the death of the United as a major force, pah. Neville Cardus, the master journalist of the Manchester Guardian for cricket and music, said in the 1970s when the Times wrote his premature obituary, "I have no wish to challenge the authority of the Press". It's the same with United, they are still a stellar football force, this is merely an episode in their history.