When Barcelona danced and weaved in and out of a Manchester United team, made to look so ordinary, only three players could really hold their hands up and say they had a good night overall: Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic and Wayne Rooney. At last, most will say, Rooney has performed when it matters most. Unfortunately, he was up against the greatest machine that is Barcelona and perhaps one or two around him failed to deliver. Nonetheless, he was extremely impressive with everything he did on Saturday night.
However, despite this, Rooney’s relationship with Man United fans is still strained after the events of last summer when Rooney admitted he wanted to leave United because he was unsure of the clubs ambitions for the future. One would hope that winning the League for a record breaking nineteenth time, and reaching the final of the Champions League will put his young mind at ease. For fans, many will forget and move on, but a large number are still reserving judgement on Rooney’s contributions.
I think it’s clear that fans want him at the club because he really is a brilliant player and if United were to lose him, you get the sense that a huge gaping hole would be left without any cover on the horizon. He has had a tough season however, and that has impacted on him especially prior Christmas. So many different aspects were seemingly going against the 25 year old striker; revealing his desire to leave United, the u-turn to stay at United, marital problems with wife Coleen, clashes with the FA, and then that issue of his ankle injury dating back to the clash with Bayern Munich in the quarter-final of last seasons Champions League.
It all culminated in Rooney being sent to Nike’s headquarters in America for rest and recuperation, but in all honesty, it was a ploy by Ferguson to get him as far away from the savage English media as possible. After his decision to stay, he admitted he would ‘never join [Manchester] City’ and to be fair to Wayne, he never mentioned them, merely citing he wanted to leave. The media took the reigns from there. Apologies have since been heard and he’s said on several occasions that he is happy at United, and I get the feeling a lot of fans have been won over again by the former Everton man.
It was strange to see him comment after the contract had been signed, that he was ‘unsure of the clubs ambitions for the future’ with the main reason being that he saw the figure of Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez depart the club and no big names were brought in to replace them. Valencia, who has been fantastic, and Owen who has done fairly well aren’t the names that most fans, and probably Rooney wanted to see – Benzema, Aguero, Ribery, Young were just some of the big names in football that were being banded about Manchester, yet none came. And having said all that, hasn’t Fergie led you to another League title Wayne? A record breaking 19th for the club.
Goals in a wonderful comeback against West Ham, a simply stunning, breath-taking bicycle kick against Man City, a vital goal against Chelsea in the Champions League, and a goal to his name against Barcelona a Wembley have been the main highlights of his season. Run-ins with the FA were along that road, but that’s part and parcel of the English game, especially when you’re such a high profile player.
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