Happier Times
There was a programme on BBC Three recently called “People Like Us” – it was a reality TV show based on people living in and around Harpurhey, Manchester.
I actually know several people who featured in the show (in a “seen them around” kind of way – not a “first-name terms” kind of way) because I don’t live too far from Harpurhey myself.
Anyway, one of the people on the programme, a local landlord, used the phrase “They’d steal the shit from your arse. Not because they want it, but so that you don’t have it.”
There seems to be an element of this mentality about the whole Wayne Rooney situation right now.
Under normal circumstances, we would insist that only players who want to play for United be honoured with the shirt and the rest can go play for Satan’s All Star XI for all we care.
As fans and mere mortals, we can only imagine what it must feel like to pull on that Red shirt and trot out in front of a packed Old Trafford. It isn’t even a dream for some us – it’s beyond that – in real life, dreams can sometimes come true but this is something that, for the vast, vast majority of us, never had a chance of happening and never will.
So when we see someone who has the shirt and is seemingly treating it with ambivalence if not necessarily contempt then we’re bewildered. We really have no right to be but we’re also pretty angry.
But I think a lot of it is hurt. The hurt you feel when you discover that your other half has had an affair. From that moment on, the relationship is always tainted. You might be able to forgive but you’ll never be able to forget.
Rooney always seemed to “get” what it meant to be a Red Devil. I always thought he was the embodiment of a true Manchester United player – a team player, skillful, talented, brave, strong, a will to win – he seemed to have everything.
From the moment he handed in a transfer request back in 2010, that perception was blown to smithereens – it had all been an illusion.
I still maintain that I could see where he was coming from but I still think he was badly advised and wrong to do what he did.
I don’t know what a multi-millionaire footballer does in his spare time but I would guess that they do spend a bit of time trawling the internet, checking in on fan forums and sites to see what the fans are saying about them – the temptation must be irresistible.
If Wayne Rooney has done this at any point over the last three years then it won’t have taken him long to see that there are plenty of fans who really don’t like him any more (to put it mildly). Of course, if he were to come on and score a hat-trick, they’d accept it for the United cause but the praise from them would likely be along the lines of “Well, he’s only doing what we pay him millions to do”.
For many fans, his place on the mantle reserved for United legends has been erased. No matter what he does for us from here on in, he will never be accepted by some fans as one of “the greats”. As I said… tainted.
Rooney will know this and every “boo” he receives from one of our fans as he takes to the pitch will only serve to remind him that he’s blown it here.
There is a saying that goes something like “What you don’t know, can’t hurt you.”
As far as I’m aware, Rooney has said nothing about this latest transfer request. The only reason we know about it is because Sir Alex Ferguson told the world during a post-match interview towards the end of last season.
For the life of me, I still cannot understand why Fergie did that. As I said in a previous post, the problem wasn’t his any more (he’d already announced his retirement and the season was as good as over) and David Moyes had a tough enough task coming in and taking over from SAF without having to deal with the fall-out from a bombshell like that.
Surely the best thing Fergie could have done was to keep his mouth shut and let events transpire over the summer after all parties had had the chance to clear their heads and make decisions based on the new season with the new manager and in many ways a fresh start?
It was such an uncharacteristically open and unambiguous comment on one of his players (his stock answer would usually be “I’m not going to talk about that”) that I can only conclude that it was Fergie’s intention to hang Rooney out to dry.
Fergie knew that this would be the last straw for the fans – even those who had previously forgiven Rooney his moment of madness in 2010 (and had perhaps defended him on those discussion boards etc) would now shake their heads in despair – doubly betrayed – once with the transfer and then again for spurning their attempts to defend him.
A lot has already been made of Rooney’s appearance yesterday. Clearly not totally fit, clearly not entirely happy, he still had a hand in two of our goals and showed that he’s still a pretty useful player.
But I sensed a lot of discomfort in Wayne Rooney yesterday. I’m no behavioural psychologist but I think the beard is an attempt to hide. He wants to be out there playing football because that is clearly the thing he still loves to do but I just don’t think he feels comfortable doing it in the Red of United anymore.
He knows he isn’t hero-worhipped here anymore. He knows he’ll be tolerated so long as he’s doing the business but he’ll probably never be loved in the same way that so many of our greatest players are and have been.
“Well, it’s his own fault and if he’s feeling bad – good! He brought it on himself!”, you might say and I wouldn’t disagree but I do feel that there comes a point where you have to accept that we’re not judge and jury here. Rooney’s a footballer who believed his time at the club had run its course (being left out of the biggest game of last season – Real Madrid – probably confirmed it for him) and so he asked for a transfer.
To make him stay and face the very fans that slate him smacks of purgatory to me and I reluctantly now believe that we should let him go – even if it is to Chelsea.
Yes, the loss will weaken us temporarily and it will strengthen Chelsea temporarily but I do feel that the longer-term view needs to be taken.
This is Manchester United, it was here long before Rooney joined and it will be here long after Rooney has hung up his boots. The belief… nay, the insistence… that we only want players that want to play for us is something that should be ingrained in the bricks and mortar of the foundations of Old Trafford.
In the long run, this will make us stronger.
In an ideal world, we sell Rooney to Chelsea and we still beat them to the title and in future years, the name Wayne Rooney will be used as a cautionary tale to all those players who don’t fully appreciate what they have at Manchester United and how privileged they are to wear the shirt and we will call it “Doing a Rooney”.
Looking at Rooney yesterday, he seems to have made the decision that if he is to be forced to stay at United, he will play with professionalism but without passion.
He will score, he will assist, but he won’t celebrate. He won’t expect any love nor will he give any.
Let him go. We’ll have plenty of opportunity to bash a few Scousers when we play Liverpool on the 1st September… we don’t need to take one of our own.