Wayne Rooney Appreciation Thread

I'm no United fan but he was an absolute legend, I have never been more excited about a player than I was for Rooney in the 2004 Euros. The only other player that came closing to matching that sense of something really transformative for England was Gascoigne in 1990.

Forget his later years, all players decline with age, some sooner than others, depending on the team around them, the manager and their own bodies. Rooney was very very special.
 
Tom Van Persie said:
IIRC he was good towards the end of the 14/15 season when we were pushing for top four and yeah he was poor in that 15/16 season. I remember him putting in some terrible performances and getting quite a lot of stick and Neville defending him like mad on MNF. Funny that he was still starting for England in the Euros in 2016.
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Southgate knew he was done and it seemed like there weren't going to be favourites anymore.

So much for that
 
Strootman's Finger said:
He was beyond awful, he was detrimental to how the entire team played. He got slow, and he got cowardly. The two things that made him the player he was were gone, nothing left.
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Rooney was detrimental of how we were playing in a team consisting of Ashley Young, Darmian, Schneiderlin, Lingard, Depay, Fellaini, Bastian and even Mata and Herrera? Yeah if we had Kevin De Bruyne or Benzema instead we would have won 2-3 more PL titles definitely.
 
GifLord said:
Full of shit
I still remember shit like MY CAPTAIN SHALL ALWAYS PLAY when he couldn't even play as a forward anymore and Van Gaal tried to shoehorn him into midfield. Jesus christ.
He got to those numbers because he kept playing CONSTANTLY no matter what kind of PERFORMANCES he showed he was never DROPPED. He was so full of himself that he tried to pretend that nothing was wrong.
Some of you just love rewriting history when it comes to your favorite players and completely ignoring how bad it truly was
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And that is some kind of argument against playing Rooney? When the other options were who? Lingard, Depay and Fellaini? Yes he did shift him all over the place and the options in midfielder were Bastian, Schneiderlin, Fellaini and Herrera. Plenty of players played constantly, football is played with 11 players, please elaborate by playing Rooney who was actually hampered and would have transformed our play? And some of the arguments about playing him constantly even though he performed badly can be said for just about anyone bar DDG in those years, nobody is rewriting history just a bit perspective is needed.
 
GifLord said:
Nah he was really awful. Poor first touch, his speed was gone, could barely move at time from the spot.. And Van Gaal made it even worse by trying to shoehorn him into midfield. He was done at top level back then.


He then he went on Paddy Crerand show on MUTV and defended himself acting like there was nothing wrong with him and we should respect him for all the shit he did in the past - thinking about it now feels like a ronaldo dejavu interview with piers :lol:
MUTV started censoring callers aswell who criticised Rooney.... He was done at 2014-15. And then Mourinho came and played him until he broke the Charlton record :wenger:
I admired the young Rooney but god did i hate the late Rooney he was so bad.
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You're simply great with all the gifs and videos and your nickname gives you justice but I've never see you post anything remotely positive about any United player, past or present or anything positive in general to that matter.
 
Jeppers7 said:
Do you think Sir Alex disagreed? He would tell people that Ronaldo was going to be the best player in the world, even at 18.
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If I say it will rain tomorrow does that mean it's raining now?

How does SAF saying Ronaldo would go on to be the best player in the world mean he thought he was better than Rooney in their early years? It just doesn't. Ferguson was wrong anyway as Messi was clearly better.

Fair enough if you think Ronaldo was performing better than Rooney at that time. That's a whole different argument, one I'd disagree with, but at least it addresses the actual point of dispute as to who was better at a young age.

I know you latterly said it's possible to outperform someone without being better than them. It's really not. How on earth do you judge who is better other than the way perform and what they actually do? One having more potential, talent, or room for improvement that has not yet been fully realised is a completely different thing. If it wasn't then we'd have to say that Ravel Morrison was a better football player than Ole.
 
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Genuinely a true legend in my eyes.
Scored one in two despite being poor in his later years with the club.
Christ he was an absolute monster, tough, hard working, skilled and talented.
You'd see him miss a shot and then suddenly be in the left back position for the opposition counter.

Honestly he would drag goals out of this team
 
Chipper said:
If I say it will rain tomorrow does that mean it's raining now?

How does SAF saying Ronaldo would go on to be the best player in the world mean he thought he was better than Rooney in their early years? It just doesn't. Ferguson was wrong anyway as Messi was clearly better.

Fair enough if you think Ronaldo was performing better than Rooney at that time. That's a whole different argument, one I'd disagree with, but at least it addresses the actual point of dispute as to who was better at a young age.

I know you latterly said it's possible to outperform someone without being better than them. It's really not. How on earth do you judge who is better other than the way perform and what they actually do? One having more potential, talent, or room for improvement that has not yet been fully realised is a completely different thing. If it wasn't then we'd have to say that Ravel Morrison was a better football player than Ole.
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As previously stated, Gary Neville outperformed Ronaldo in 04. Fred outperformed Bruno last season, many players outperformed Ryan Giggs in 2002/3 who weren’t as good as him.

Ronaldo has won five balon dors by the way. Safe to say he did go on to be the best player in the world. He and Messi are two of the greatest players of all time. There’s a reason why Sir Alex never felt the same about Rooney.
 
SAF said Phil Jones was the next Duncan Edward’s
 
Lay said:
SAF said Phil Jones was the next Duncan Edward’s
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"Jones, arguably, the way he is looking, could be our best ever player.”

- Sir Alex Ferguson joking, maybe… still not sure
 
Jeppers7 said:
As previously stated, Gary Neville outperformed Ronaldo in 04. Fred outperformed Bruno last season, many players outperformed Ryan Giggs in 2002/3 who weren’t as good as him.

Ronaldo has won five balon dors by the way. Safe to say he did go on to be the best player in the world. He and Messi are two of the greatest players of all time. There’s a reason why Sir Alex never felt the same about Rooney.
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With your other examples of players outperforming clearly better ones for a brief period of time we already have large bodies of work to consider for the players mentioned. With young players who are just starting their careers we don't have that. All we could judge on is what they'd done so far.

Who is better out Fred and Bruno is pretty much settled as they are both mature and we've seen lots of their performances. However, I suppose a miracle could happen and should Fred start performing like an all-time great midfielder as of tomorrow, prolonging his career into his late 30s and being ultra consistent then we could say he was an overall better player than Bruno. That's extremely unlikely of course.

As for the Messi thing, I was semi-trolling so you can ignore that.

Edit: Do you think it would be fair to say Fred was a better player last season if he outperformed Bruno, that over the specific time-frame mentioned he was the superior one of the two? That's what others (I'd agree with them) are saying about Rooney. That he genrally outperformed young Ronaldo, and was therefore better than him at that stage of their careers. The large body of work we've already seen from Bruno and Fred shows that Bruno is better, and the subsequent careers of Rooney and Ronaldo showed that Ronaldo was ultimately better.
 
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Chipper said:
With your other examples of players outperforming clearly better ones for a brief period of time we already have large bodies of work to consider for the players mentioned. With young players who are just starting their careers we don't have that. All we could judge on is what they'd done so far.

Who is better out Fred and Bruno is pretty much settled as they are both mature and we've seen lots of their performances. However, I suppose a miracle could happen and should Fred start performing like an all-time great midfielder as of tomorrow, prolonging his career into his late 30s and being ultra consistent then we could say he was an overall better player than Bruno. That's extremely unlikely of course.

As for the Messi thing, I was semi-trolling so you can ignore that.

Edit: Do you think it would be fair to say Fred was a better player last season if he outperformed Bruno, that over the specific time-frame mentioned he was the superior one of the two? That's what others (I'd agree with them) are saying about Rooney. That he genrally outperformed young Ronaldo, and was therefore better than him at that stage of their careers. The large body of work we've already seen from Bruno and Fred shows that Bruno is better, and the subsequent careers of Rooney and Ronaldo showed that Ronaldo was ultimately better.
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I don’t think it’s black or white. It’s more of an opinion. I never looked at Rooney and saw a Pele in the making. However I saw Ronaldo and thought we had signed a player who would go on to be of the best in the world. His early performances are ridiculously downplayed by the way. He was outrageous. Rooney was mature and the sum of his parts.

It’s what you like, but ultimately my assesment of the two young players proved to be bang on.
 
Real Name said:
You're simply great with all the gifs and videos and your nickname gives you justice but I've never see you post anything remotely positive about any United player, past or present or anything positive in general to that matter.
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Positive? We are an absolute shitshow of a club - a meme at this poin. 1 billion spent and nothing to show for it. People praising average players, trying to give them more time to come good when it's already been pretty obvious they're not good. I don't sugarcoat it like most here do.
Young Rooney was exciting to watch. Late 20s-early 30s not so much. When your top earner shows the performance Rooney has in his last 3 years at the club you're either a fanboy or deluded if you think he didn't deserve criticism. Somebody on here already started with the excuse that Rooney played with poor team mates thats why he was so bad...



Kostov said:
And that is some kind of argument against playing Rooney? When the other options were who? Lingard, Depay and Fellaini? Yes he did shift him all over the place and the options in midfielder were Bastian, Schneiderlin, Fellaini and Herrera. Plenty of players played constantly, football is played with 11 players, please elaborate by playing Rooney who was actually hampered and would have transformed our play? And some of the arguments about playing him constantly even though he performed badly can be said for just about anyone bar DDG in those years, nobody is rewriting history just a bit perspective is needed.
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He was our top earner. You expect consistent quality from someone earning 300k a week. He was absolute dog shit 50% of the games and some didn't even wanna hear about a decline.
 
He was a monster of a player in his prime.

He never reached the absolute heights some (many) predicted based on his development as a teenager. But he wasn't that far off either all things said and done.

Based on prime level as a United player, there aren't many above him.
 
GifLord said:
Positive? We are an absolute shitshow of a club - a meme at this poin. 1 billion spent and nothing to show for it. People praising average players, trying to give them more time to come good when it's already been pretty obvious they're not good. I don't sugarcoat it like most here do.
Young Rooney was exciting to watch. Late 20s-early 30s not so much. When your top earner shows the performance Rooney has in his last 3 years at the club you're either a fanboy or deluded if you think he didn't deserve criticism. Somebody on here already started with the excuse that Rooney played with poor team mates thats why he was so bad...
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As I said...
 
Jeppers7 said:
I don’t think it’s black or white. It’s more of an opinion. I never looked at Rooney and saw a Pele in the making. However I saw Ronaldo and thought we had signed a player who would go on to be of the best in the world. His early performances are ridiculously downplayed by the way. He was outrageous. Rooney was mature and the sum of his parts.

It’s what you like, but ultimately my assesment of the two young players proved to be bang on.
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You are so full of shit. :lol:
 
Jeppers7 said:
I don’t think it’s black or white. It’s more of an opinion. I never looked at Rooney and saw a Pele in the making. However I saw Ronaldo and thought we had signed a player who would go on to be of the best in the world. His early performances are ridiculously downplayed by the way. He was outrageous. Rooney was mature and the sum of his parts.

It’s what you like, but ultimately my assesment of the two young players proved to be bang on.
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You're hilarious. Now I know you're just trolling. Ronaldo was outrageous his first year? No he wasn't.
 
Kelly15 said:
You're hilarious. Now I know you're just trolling. Ronaldo was outrageous his first year? No he wasn't.
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In addition he’d already destroyed United and England, was the key player in us winning the FA Cup and won our player of the year. Coincidentally in Rooneys best seasons we tended to finish runner up. We needed Ronaldo’s and RVPs to make the difference
 
Jeppers7 said:


In addition he’d already destroyed United and England, was the key player in us winning the FA Cup and won our player of the year. Coincidentally in Rooneys best seasons we tended to finish runner up. We needed Ronaldo’s and RVPs to make the difference
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Rooneys a bigger United legend. There’s nothing you can do about that.
 
GifLord said:
Has nothing do to with poor team mates. Fergies' last team was pretty average on paper bar a few exceptions and he did well then.
The decline was very obvious to see and the fanboys just like you right now even back then couldn't see it - just like with Ronaldo
He couldn't run, couldn't pass, couldn't dribble past a player due to decline of speed, his first touch became a laughing stock not to mention his finishing....

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Quite clear he was off his face in most of these clips he could barely kick the ball :lol:.
 
Rooney was terrible in his last season and LVG was an idiot for playing him but he rolled back the years to create the equalizer for Mats in the cup final.
Ronaldo in his last half a season at United was worse.
 
Has anybody seen him asked why his career at the top end finished so prematurely?

I suppose its a difficult question to ask but I'd be interested to see what he thinks.

I watched him in an U21 game whilst LvG was here and he struggled. It was that bad by the time he was 29.
 
Marwood said:
Has anybody seen him asked why his career at the top end finished so prematurely?

I suppose its a difficult question to ask but I'd be interested to see what he thinks.

I watched him in an U21 game whilst LvG was here and he struggled. It was that bad by the time he was 29.
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Injuries, cigarettes, alcohol and a bad diet. He'd let himself go completely during the off-season. It all catches up on you.
 
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