So the frenzy has begun! Claims, counter claims, statements, denials and it’s likely to continue all the way to January. For make no mistake, Wayne Rooney will no longer be at Old Trafford after that. The matter appears to have spiraled too far out of control for it to be resolved in any other way. Nobody knows the real story of what’s going on between Rooney and Sir Alex Ferguson because what we see in the media is unlikely to be accurate. What can be certain is that somewhere in the mix is the man who plays a major role in the whole saga – Rooney’s agent Paul Stretford.
One report, for whatever it’s worth, claims that Rooney told Ferguson he does not want his contract renewed, another states that an offer of £160,000 a week has been countered by a demand for £200,000 so it becomes clear that Stretford has got his fingerprints all over the negotiations which have dragged on for months. Maybe the truth lies somewhere in between but as far as I’m concerned, neither Rooney nor anyone else should even demand let alone be paid anywhere near that sort of money…NOBODY.
Don’t be at all surprised if it is that, rather than Rooney’s recent domestic revelations and loss of form which led to the current situation. Ferguson would have been at his legendary, negotiating best with Rooney and Stretford as recently as six months ago because of his determination to retain his most potent weapon. What Rooney’s off field scandals may have done is cause Ferguson to lose his will in trying to keep him and quite frankly, he should be applauded for it.
There’s an old saying that no player is bigger than the club, that may now need to be rephrased to state that no player is bigger than the game for what most of them are doing together with their agents is slowly killing the goose that laid the golden egg.
Manchester United has produced many ‘firsts’ over the years, it may now need to become the first major club to draw a line in the sand and say NO to one of the biggest names in English football. Forget about his current lean spell, Rooney is far too good for him not to rediscover the brilliant form we all know he has but that must not weaken the resolve of the club in trying to bring some sense in the mad world that football has become.
Figures have become so huge, and have been bandied around so often, that their true meaning has almost been lost. Stop and digest how much £200,000 PER WEEK really is, week after week, month after month for 10 or 15 years. Does anyone NEED that sort of money? If any player does, in order to maintain a drinking, gambling and womanizing lifestyle they should not be welcome at any truly professional club anyway.
A salary cap is not the answer simply because it cannot truly be enforced but if it was ever introduced, the absolute maximum a player – any player, should be paid by his club must not be more than £50,000 a week with personal sponsorship deals and so on earned over and above that.
If players like Rooney cannot resist the immense pressure from their greedy, unscrupulous agents, they can simply go elsewhere – and good riddance to both of them. It’s only a pity that Paul Stretford cannot be forced to change his name because it’s an insult to the thousands of passionate fans who have stood in that stand for decades.
Should Manchester United agree to pay Rooney £200,000 a week?
Isn’t it funny that another of stretford’s clients is on his way – Steven Taylor at Newcastle? The fat fuck is leading his clients around by the nose and they’re too stupid to realise what’s going on. If Rooney wants to leave let him go. United have survived the loss of bigger names and the loss of a whoring, sulking fat cunt will leave but a ripple in the history of the great team
Let him go. I am fed up of trying to defend the pug-faced moron. If we get a decent chunk of cash I say let him leave. He will probably never be the same player in a different team and will do a Ronaldo (Brazilian one) and gorge himself on lard as soon as he leaves.
And if he joins Citeh he will instantly be united’s most hated. And deservedly so.
If he indeed asks for that amount, he no longer fulfills the criteria of a hard-working, loyal United player.
On one hand, it is an increase of $40k per week, which comes to $2 million a year, which is not a big deal at a club like United.
But on the other hand, that $40k per week is the entire salary of an able replacement (potentially) like Chicharito or Macheda.
No one is irreplaceable.
Keano is right. Players are like pieces of meat. When their time is up, they gotta go.
Stretford and Rooney did it to everton and now he’s doing it to your lot. Time to take your medicine and accept that no matter how many times he kisses the badge or claims to love the club, money motivates these two. Don’t be fooled into thinking the agent is leading him astray, however: if Rooney didn’t want to go, he wouldn’t.
Sorry Pheeno, I cannot agree. Rooney is widely recognised as not being the sharpest knife in the kitchen and a slimy, greedy, smooth talking scumbag like Stretford is capable of convincing any 24 year old to do what he ‘swears’ is best for them.
I agree with your article. BUT I do believe that Fergie is of a different time and is judging players from a 50’s/60’s/70’s perspective.
Rooney has to go. No player is bigger than the club. But also NO manager can be allowed to be bigger than the club.
Fergie’s childish banning of journalists. His vandetta against the BBC his refusal to answer questions, which we the fans want to know the answers to, all add up to a man whose ego has taken over.
He has let great players go and never really recovered. The team this season is a middle to lower half of the league side. No domination of the games as before. Stupid defensive errors.
I thought the Sunderland centre backs, last night, were quite extraordinarily good. Our defence needs a rewrite. Our midfield has never recovered from the loss of Hargreaves and, especially,Roy Keene. (Who I may say made a very interesting comment about the Rooney case last evening.He obviously felt he was treated very badly by Fergie!) But we certainly need a midfield general. As for the attack.
Perm any three from ten and there is no leader there.
It all adds up to a slide down the table and Fergie taking his pension either in january or at the end of the season and, let us pray the Glazers decide to sell!
If those events do not happen and the sullen, bad tempered, ego of Fergie remains along with the Glazers then it will be Goodnight Vienna and in two years we will be playing Championship football.
Frank, you’re preaching to the choir: stretford IS all of those things, but it suited united that he was that way when he left everton REFUSING to sign a contract after a fallout with the manager: very similar to this. United and even Newcastle tried to take advantage- it worked out well for utd then but not realising what a bastard stretford is, taking Rooney from his first agent illegally- the court cases that followed, his dealings with everton and no doubt dozens of meetings that he’s had with those in the corridors of power at utd since Rooney joined, is a MAJOR failure. I’m sorry I can’t be slightly more diplomatic with this but it’s a case of ‘tough shit’ you got him in queationable circumstances with that agent, and that’s how you’ll lose him! I’m sorry but it’s that simple.
Give the lad a little credit though, whilst he mightn’t have qualifications dripping off him, that doesn’t mean he’s stupid and ultimately he’s a 24 yr old man: if he didn’t want to go, he wouldn’t. I don’t deny stretford’s role by a long way but it is ultimately rooney’s choice. Denial would be to suggest anything otherwise.
You are correct on pretty much every count Pheeno. The only thing that I have doubts about is towards the end when you say that we should “Give the lad a little credit though, whilst he mightn’t have qualifications dripping off him, that doesn’t mean he’s stupid and ultimately he’s a 24 yr old man: if he didn’t want to go, he wouldn’t”.
I remember when I was 24 years old, don’t think that I was all that stupid, but I’m sure that it would not have been very difficult for a professional con man to convince me that whatever he told me was the gospel truth.
It’s sad to say but I can see traces of Paul Gascoigne’s self destruct mentality in Rooney. Whatever the lad ends up doing, I just hope that I’m wrong.
We’ll have to agree to disagree then but I think if someone says you’ll only get ‘X’ here but city/Madrid whoever will pay you ‘X’ (before you even begin to take into account half a dozen lucrative sponsorship deals) you have the opportunity to say- if it were the case- I love it here, this club has been good to me, I love the fans (and they love me), I’m close to my family, I’ve won lots and I’m not about to dip bellow the bread line if I stay: I don’t want to risk all that, even for an extra 80/90k a week or whatever it is. The final decision is his. I’m not claiming a great business mind behind his eyes, but there is a great visionary mind. Don’t deny the lad the ability to analyse the situation and appreciate the (IMHO) simple logic I’ve just stated, regardless of what stretford may or may not say to him. If he goes, it’s because he wanted out