The Red Mist Of Rooney
16 September 09 by Bill
The red mist descended around Wayne Rooney last night as he was substituted for Michael Owen in the 64th minute in the 1 – 0 win away to Besiktas. At the time, the game was tied at 0-0 and Rooney, playing as a lone striker, although working hard, had been relatively ineffective.
Prior to the game, Rooney was one of just three players to have started all six of our games this season (Evra and Foster are the other two) and Ferguson always planned to bring the England international off; no doubt with an eye on derby day this Sunday.
“It was always part of our thoughts to bring Wayne off,” Ferguson told Sky Sports.”He had been playing as the lone striker for an hour, which is why he was always going to come off. He is never pleased to come off. He has so much energy he wants to play all the time.”
Rooney’s exit from the pitch was slow; he shook his head at the decision before appearing to exchange words with a Besiktas fan. He then proceeded to sit down and throw his boots to the ground. Passionate, yes; acceptable, no.
Many Reds will brush this off as over enthusiasm and will quote his desire to play as defence for the outburst but that would be a case of the red tinted specs obscuring their view. If you fall into this category, just ask yourself, would you have the same opinion if it had been a City player? Or a Liverpool one? Or a Chelsea player? Imagine it was Gerrard or Terry throwing their boots around. We’d have a field day.
On the pitch, Rooney is developing into a world class forward. He is definitely the best player in our squad and has the potential to become the best in the world. But this latest outburst shows me that he is still not a complete player.
Performance on the pitch is just one aspect of being a footballer nowadays. Their off the pitch antics are scrutinised as much as their on field ones and rightly so. My twelve year old cousin idolises Wayne Rooney. He watches him on a Saturday and tries to replicate what he sees on Monday morning in the school playground. Rooney is a role model for thousands of kids and he needs to act accordingly.
Of course, the fire in Rooney’s belly is a big part of what makes him the player he is. To curtail it in any way would be detrimental to his performance right? Again, I just can’t accept that.
Aggression is okay, but it must be controlled. Rooney is 23 now and at some point he is going to have to learn to curb his enthusiasm. He could learn a lot from his friend and City fan Ricky Hatton. Boxing is a perfect example of how aggression and control go hand in hand. You’ll never make it to the top without both and we want Rooney to make it to the top. He is a Red after all.
If you missed the incident, you can see it here.
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if that had of been ade everyone would have been screaming for a ban typical reds
@keith: Rooney took his boot off and threw it on the floor. Adebayor used his boot to stamp on a former teammate’s face. Slightly different don’t you think?