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Originally Posted by Matt Dickinson
About all that seems left for Wayne Rooney at Manchester United is to discover the manner of his exit. And if it turns out to be dignified, he can count himself lucky.
He may be a record-breaker, a history-maker for his club, but soft farewells, kisses and curtain calls are for showbiz, not elite sport. It is a cut-throat business, as Rooney pretty brazenly reminded United fans when exploiting interest from Manchester City in 2010. Ultimately he landed himself a hefty pay-rise but some departure, with V-signs all the way, that would have been.
Rooney can hardly complain at the way he has been sidelined, even if he does have a contract until June 2019
Now it seems that the best Rooney can hope for is a last hurrah, a final fling before his inevitable farewell, although Sunday’s looming League Cup final comes well timed as a cautionary tale. As United’s star striker in 2006, Ruud van Nistelrooy was irritated enough to start the final on the bench and enraged when, sitting on a 4-0 lead over Wigan Athletic, Sir Alex Ferguson used up his three substitutions by throwing on defenders.
With a tap on Ferguson’s shoulder as the final sub ran on, Van Nistelrooy leaned over and hissed: “you c***”. With coaches and fellow players in ear-shot, incredulity turned quickly to acrimony. That row was the breaking point in a strained relationship.
Still, Ferguson knew exactly what he was doing. He had no qualms about using humiliation to point a player towards the exit — the bigger the game, the more unmistakable the message.
By not just omitting David Beckham from the team to face Real Madrid in April 2003 in a Champions League game but picking the struggling Juan Sebastián Verón, Ferguson had turned his team-sheet into a blunt weapon. “It was like being hit between the shoulder blades,” Beckham said. “I was on the outside looking in.”
Beckham walked out of that team meeting and started packing his bags. Given the bad blood between Ferguson and Rooney by the time the Scot retired — over contract rows and refuelling habits, among other things — we can easily imagine that the manager might have engineered another brutal ending.
José Mourinho has, thus far, been treading a more diplomatic path, which is not always his style. The United manager has been gently easing Rooney out, allowing the Chinese whispers to grow, without feeling a need — yet — for anything drastic.
But no one in or around Old Trafford appears to doubt where this is heading. At Chelsea, Mourinho had once talked of signing “the Fat Boy”, as he is said to have privately called Rooney, but from that first day at United back in July when he said that Rooney will “be a nine or ten but never a six and not even an eight”, there was always the suspicion that he was raising the bar to a level that the striker would struggle to reach.
It instantly exposed Rooney’s mistaken belief that he could dictate the manner of his retirement, choosing his role in midfield, easing back, going at his own pace. Rooney’s imagined version of his final years was presumptuous, an impression hardly weakened by that early-hours drinking on England duty when he should have been devoting everything to making the most of what he had left.
He can hardly complain at the way he has been sidelined, even if he does have a contract that lasts until June 2019. He has given United a healthy return over 13 seasons; more goals than any player in the club’s history, many wonderful moments and quite a few trophies on the way.
But, for United, it is a sign that they are returning to the stature that they once took for granted if Rooney, still nominally captain for club and country, can be dispensed with at 31 with what seems a minimum of fuss or controversy.
In giving Rooney enough chances to break the club’s goalscoring record — and five goals in 33 appearances this season dragged it out — Mourinho has already allowed the striker a departing flourish.
From here, Rooney must know that power has dribbled out of his hands. The manner of his farewell is not his to dictate any more. He is left hoping that, when Mourinho looks to his teamsheet and his substitutions, the manager does not feel that a Ferguson-style boot towards the exit is necessary.
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26-02-2017, 07:59 AM
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