Friday, October 22, 2010

Rooney To Stay - Yawn

So now Wayne Rooney is staying in Manchester. I should be more specific, obviously. He's staying in the red-half of Manchester with United and with Sir Alex. I'll be interested to see how long it takes the fans and his teammates to truly welcome him back to the fold.

For me, this is not particularly surprising. Their seemed to be an element of contract negotiation brinksmenship to the whole story (I know that's easy to say in hindsight). But it would have been hard for him to leave United and go anywhere but City, as they're in a financial position to outbid everyone else, and United are in a position of desperately needing cash.

Further, leaving Manchester United, but not leaving Manchester would have made his life miserable.

Also, when you compare Rooney and Tevez on form this year, Rooney doesn't make the starting 11 (City don't play with more than one striker). Tevez has been on-fire, Rooney has been slowed by injuries, and has lost his goal-scoring touch.

And finally, in my opinion, I think Rooney has actually entered the decline phase of his career. Yes, he's only 24. But Michael Owen was on the decline at a similar age, if not earlier. Rooney rose to prominence at an early age with Everton. He has a lot of games under his belt, especially when you think of all his England Caps (67 senior Caps so far). He's rarely had a summer off. And worse, he's had a number of major injuries. Games and injuries add up, especially with the all-action style in which he plays.

Are Manchester United better off with Rooney? Absolutely, for now, though I still think they'll struggle to stay in the Top 4 this year. But check back in years 4 and 5 of the new contract. He might end up being a millstone around their neck.

6 comments:

The Polish Hammer said...

Hey Frog:

Is this blog space really worthy of you? Management is not really committed to bringing the quality talent around you for you to ascend to the top of the blogoshpere. Despite your carpal tunnel wrists, you are a major talent and should be treated as such.

Best,
The Polish Hammer

GFC said...

Listen Polish Hammer, the authors on the BeanTownFrog are only of the highest quality! Management only selects and accepts the most qualified and talented writers.

GFC said...

Is anyone really too shocked that Rooney is back with Manchester United? I agree with the Gooner, there is no way Rooney could move across town...SAF does not even play him when he goes back to Everton! How would he have handled playing for the local rivals?

Other clubs:

Chelsea? Have the money but not sure they were serious not with Drogba, Anelka et al playing up front.

Real Madrid? Maybe but they have Higuain up front and not sure Rooney fits into the Mourinho mold.

Barcelona? Talk about a ticking financial timebomb.

No Italian club made sense. So the fact he stayed with Manchester United is the only default club he could stay with...now let us see how he performs.

philip said...

I really thought he was leaving. But I don't care about Man U or Rooney. I just hoped that this would hurt their title chances.

Anonymous said...

he's going to leave utd, despite this. Perhaps not as soon as you would have thought just 2 days ago, but he'll leave.

everyone wins by him signing.

it gives man utd more leverage in demanding a higher transfer fee, because they just gave him a new contract, high costs to them, etc etc.

and it gives wayne a reason to demand extremely high wages, by pointing out how much utd gave him.

in the end, man utd pays his high wages, but makes all the money back when they sell him. and wayne gets those high wages, then is able to use that as a way to force higher wages wherever he goes.

GFC said...

Good point about being able to sell him at a higher transfer fee now that he has a contract, question remains, which club can afford him? I know the rumor de jour was he was heading to Chelsea, but I just don't see that...otherwise who is out there? City? I really do not think Rooney would change clubs to cross town rivals...it will be interesting to see where he could land.