Wayne Rooney inducted into the Premier League hall of fame

Jeppers7 said:
Literally none of this is true. I worked in the megastore in 08, Ronaldo outsold everything 10 to 1. He was literally a superstar. Viva Ronaldo was THE song both home and away. He scored 42 goals that season and so many of them were important goals that won games. If you added up the points his goals won us that season and compared that to other players, not only that his overall performances were unbelievable and consistently so, something Rooney never really managed. His effect on that team was Cantona-esque from 06-09. We won the league three times in a row, the CL, the world club cup and league cup in those three years. You need only look at the four years after until SAF retired and how much less we won, we fell short most often without Ronaldo.
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Pointing out that tourists bought his jerseys less than Ronaldo is hardly a factor when talking about how insanely popular Rooney was with the match going fans. Pretty much every Utd fan from that era I know had Rooney as their favorite player.

Also, if you actually remember watching the games and not looking at just goals, you'll see how important Rooney was at that time. I'm not trying to knock Ronaldo btw, he was insanely good those 3 years, but so was Rooney.

And in the 4 years after Ronaldo we won 2 leagues and lost the other 2 by 1 point and GD. Rooney was top scorer twice in that span so don't really see how that period is a knock on him.
 
Well deserved. There was that period upto about 2006 where he was on another level
 
I know he became a lot more productive later but the early years Rooney was devastating. One of my favourite players ever.

The injuries just whittled him down over the years - the 2010 injury was the killer. He was never anywhere near as explosive again.
 
golden_blunder said:
So we should criticize our top scorer instead then?

rooney at the time of the city debacle was rightly trying to force more money investment. Yet he still lingers in peoples memories as someone who wanted away.
rio on the other hand never gets a mention, despite sneaky dinners/talk with him, his agent and Kenyon who was at Chelsea at the time.

we should consider ourselves lucky that Rooney played for us for so long and didnt Clear off abroad. I know Ronaldo was trying to get him to Madrid
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Was the person you’re replying to criticising Rooney or simply just stating a fact/opinion ?
 
Definitely my favourite United player, alongside Giggs when I was a child/teenager.

An absolute joy to watch.
 
golden_blunder said:
So we should criticize our top scorer instead then?

rooney at the time of the city debacle was rightly trying to force more money investment. Yet he still lingers in peoples memories as someone who wanted away.
rio on the other hand never gets a mention, despite sneaky dinners/talk with him, his agent and Kenyon who was at Chelsea at the time.

we should consider ourselves lucky that Rooney played for us for so long and didnt Clear off abroad. I know Ronaldo was trying to get him to Madrid
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ITK
(Who said anything about criticising him?)
 
King7Eric said:
Pointing out that tourists bought his jerseys less than Ronaldo is hardly a factor when talking about how insanely popular Rooney was with the match going fans. Pretty much every Utd fan from that era I know had Rooney as their favorite player.

Also, if you actually remember watching the games and not looking at just goals, you'll see how important Rooney was at that time. I'm not trying to knock Ronaldo btw, he was insanely good those 3 years, but so was Rooney.

And in the 4 years after Ronaldo we won 2 leagues and lost the other 2 by 1 point and GD. Rooney was top scorer twice in that span so don't really see how that period is a knock on him.
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It’s match going fans who go into the megastore? Match days are literally 70% of the turnover of the store.

In the three years after Ronaldo left, before we signed RVP who had an almost Ronaldo-esque season, we won one league title and a league cup. The three years before with Ronaldo, we won the league every season, the CL, Club World Cup and the league cup.

Rooney was not the talisman of that side, nor was he more popular than Ronaldo at that time with the fanbase, regardless of your bunch of mates. Megastore sales are far more reliable indicators of player popularity than your mates.
 
Skills said:
I know he became a lot more productive later but the early years Rooney was devastating. One of my favourite players ever.

The injuries just whittled him down over the years - the 2010 injury was the killer. He was never anywhere near as explosive again.
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Definitely. Incredibly talented, but matched with just as much aggression. Great player to watch
 
Didn't give him enough credit when he was playing,probably because I thought he was a bit of a dick off the field and the way he went about contract renewals at the time.
Looking back though,what a player,some of the goals he scored were pure genius.Respect.
 
Jeppers7 said:
It’s match going fans who go into the megastore? Match days are literally 70% of the turnover of the store.

In the three years after Ronaldo left, before we signed RVP who had an almost Ronaldo-esque season, we won one league title and a league cup. The three years before with Ronaldo, we won the league every season, the CL, Club World Cup and the league cup.

Rooney was not the talisman of that side, nor was he more popular than Ronaldo at that time with the fanbase, regardless of your bunch of mates. Megastore sales are far more reliable indicators of player popularity than your mates.
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Alright firstly even if we believe you are saying the truth about you working in the megastore and the shirt sales ( no offense to you but a lot of people on the net make up a lot of stuff), doesn't really refute how important Rooney was to that team. I can't prove who was more popular, but to downplay Rooney's importance and act like Ronaldo was scoring all those goals without the incredible work players like Rooney and Tevez were doing around him is ridiculous. Goals are not the only way of judging a contribution to the game. Anyone who understood even a bit of football even at that time knew how important Rooney was to the side. To make it sound like Ronaldo was doing it all on his own is utter bull.
 
King7Eric said:
Alright firstly even if we believe you are saying the truth about you working in the megastore and the shirt sales ( no offense to you but a lot of people on the net make up a lot of stuff), doesn't really refute how important Rooney was to that team. I can't prove who was more popular, but to downplay Rooney's importance and act like Ronaldo was scoring all those goals without the incredible work players like Rooney and Tevez were doing around him is ridiculous. Goals are not the only way of judging a contribution to the game. Anyone who understood even a bit of football even at that time knew how important Rooney was to the side. To make it sound like Ronaldo was doing it all on his own is utter bull.
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Anyone who has worked in the megastore, or did around that time will know Fred the red well. If anyone else on here worked there they will know exactly what I mean.

Nobody has downplayed Rooneys importance, nobody has said Ronaldo was a one man team. What he was was the difference between us getting over the line and one of the greatest players who ever lived. You claimed Rooney was the talisman of that side which simply isn’t true. Doesn’t mean he wasn’t a brilliant player.
 
Rooney was a fantastic player, played in several different roles and had everything, strength, technique, desire, never gave in and was a true force of nature. Fergie wasn`t daft either, he let Ronaldo go but there is no way he was letting Wazza go, far too important to the team.
 
Does anybody feel Rooney actually peaked at the euros in 2004? Everytime I see clips of him from that tournament he just looked like an unstoppable, unplayable force. Faster, stronger than what he ended up like at United. Sounds insane that you could peak at 18 but is there some truth to it?
 
Baneofthegame said:
I think people associate Rooney with the years after Ferguson more so than the years prior for whatever reason. After Ronaldo left we very nearly won 4 in a row with Rooney as the focal point of our team.

Its a shame he couldn’t prolong his career further but imagine we had prime Rooney in our side now, it would be phenomenal.
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To be fair, we won only two though, in neither of which he was really the talisman or the focal point of the team.

In 09-10, Rooney was our main player and we won the league cup.

In 10-11 he started the season quite badly after the transfer request, and it was Nani and Berbatov who carried our attack on the first half of the season, with Rooney and Hernandez being our main attackers in the second half.

In 11-12, Rooney was our main player and we didn’t win anything.

In 12-13, it was RVP our main player, and we won the league.

Rooney was an excellent player, I think he was comfortably our second most important player during Ronaldo years and arguably our best overall player this century when you consider the longevity. His peak was higher than United’s other greats like Scholes and Giggs. It was also lower than RVP’s, RVN’s and far lower than Ronaldo’s. Which is not a shame.
 
Revan said:
To be fair, we won only two though, in neither of which he was really the talisman or the focal point of the team.

In 09-10, Rooney was our main player and we won the league cup.

In 10-11 he started the season quite badly after the transfer request, and it was Nani and Berbatov who carried our attack on the first half of the season, with Rooney and Hernandez being our main attackers in the second half.

In 11-12, Rooney was our main player and we didn’t win anything.

In 12-13, it was RVP our main player, and we won the league.

Rooney was an excellent player, I think he was comfortably our second most important player during Ronaldo years and arguably our best overall player this century when you consider the longevity. His peak was higher than United’s other greats like Scholes and Giggs. It was also lower than RVP’s, RVN’s and far lower than Ronaldo’s. Which is not a shame.
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We win that title if he doesn't get injured vs Bayern. The entire morale of the club deflated as soon as that happened because of how central he was to all of our attacking play.

I remember him being a surprise inclusion against Bayern in the second leg, and Old Trafford was rocking as soon as the team was announced.
 
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Andycoleno9 said:
I am so pissed how underrated he is among fans and especially United fans. One of our greatest players ever.
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I think [hope] that time and nostalgia will start giving him the right sort of rating he deserves. We're slowly on the way there.
 
MiceOnMeth said:
Does anybody feel Rooney actually peaked at the euros in 2004? Everytime I see clips of him from that tournament he just looked like an unstoppable, unplayable force. Faster, stronger than what he ended up like at United. Sounds insane that you could peak at 18 but is there some truth to it?
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I've seen this a lot of times over the years and my personal take is that Euro 2004 Rooney was pretty much exactly like he was between the ages of 18 and about 24 - a bit streaky and prone to three or four spells in a season, usually of about 5 games, where he would look like the best player in the universe.

He had plenty of these spells for United, but that Euro 04 one in particular happened to coincide with an international tournament so still gets remembered - he was the same player in those 4 games that he was for us later that season .

Obviously slowed down significantly when he was in his mid-to-late 20s, mind, but I'd say his absolute "peak" as a footballer was January to April 2010. That's when he was playing like a genuine all-round center forward, probably on the level of Benzema right now or Kane in 2020/21.
 
Andycoleno9 said:
I am so pissed how underrated he is among fans and especially United fans. One of our greatest players ever.
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Same here. What a player. God knows how much a player like that would cost nowadays.

He was immense. His 100% effort meant 120% for other players, they just couldn’t keep up. Combine that with his skill - just wow. I’m not sure we will see this again. He was kind of a different breed.
 
"Hall of fame" seems something American and very cringeworthy.

As for Wayne, he was a complete striker/forward and a team player. A legend. One of the best to play for United and in the Premier league.
 
Andycoleno9 said:
This is a thing which is rarely mentioned among fans. He was striker and always said that he likes to play there but he never made a fuss about switching positions for others. With Ruud he was second striker, with Ronaldo and Tevez he played on the left, with RVP he played as second striker/no10. Also penalty duty; he (who was pretty good in that) was always behind someone .
And he always, absolutely always gave everything in games. Even when he was at his peak he didn't behave as superstar.
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Not quite sure about this. I think someone else already posted that video clip of Rooney saying he enjoyed having the freedom to roam around the pitch and drop deep when he wanted - that's essentially the position he was playing when paired with Van Nistelrooy, Van Persie, and Tevez. He only played on the left in specific games here and there in the 2006-09 team, like the CL away knockouts or that famous comeback against Spurs where he switched to the left wing at half-time and dominated - most of the time it was Rooney and Saha/Tevez/Berbatov up front in an extremely fluid 4-4-2 (i.e. pretty much Rooney's best position).

On penalties, his record in the Premier League is scored 23 and missed 10 which is average. The players he was behind in the queue (Ruud, Ronaldo, Van Persie) were all better than him.
 
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