For someone who is often said to have a brilliant footballing brain, he is very predictable with his long balls out wide and his pointless chipped shots.
Wayne Rooney rejoins Everton | United save £30M by giving him £10M pay-off
- Thread starter RonaldoVII
- Start date
260 more matches. Zanetti had 343 more matches while Maldini had 275 more matches.
Thing is, all this players when they retired (in their forties) were still better players than Rooney is now.
Massively this. I started saying it to my most 'footbally' mate a while back, still well after I'd realised it myself, but he just went 'it's Rooney mate, what are you on about?'
There were loads here flinging the most overused and annoying term about - kneejerk, even seasons after he started playing a bit shit.
So not very many basically. Now list the players that drop off before they play 700 games. I'm guessing it is most players that play the game.
All of my friends that support other teams could see how awful Rooney had become a few years back.
They loved it when Jose took over and started him v Bournemouth. They wouldn't have it that Mourinho would have to phase him out slowly. Which he did expertly I must say.
Thanks for the memories Wayne but you're a Championship footballer at best these days.
They loved it when Jose took over and started him v Bournemouth. They wouldn't have it that Mourinho would have to phase him out slowly. Which he did expertly I must say.
Thanks for the memories Wayne but you're a Championship footballer at best these days.
By laughing at him, we're laughing at ourselves.
So you're going to put Rooney up against two of the greatest players of all time. One a child prodigy and the other an athletic freak of nature. Give it a rest. Compare him to your average premier league player in terms of miles on his body.
Give it a rest. Compare him to your average premier league player in terms of miles on his body.
Why has their footballing ability got anything to do with how their body has fared?
James Milner has played the same amount of games, has the same body type and is doing just fine.
They are exceptions that's why. Next you'll point out Ryan Giggs. Some players can do it but a majority cannot sustain that level. Look at Shevchenko in his latter years vs his prime years or Ronaldinho. Players get old and lose that extra bit of burst they had in them. But of course it is a "Rooney myth" spread by "his mates in the media"
I'm laughing at a chubby scouser who couldn't take care of himself and declined to the point that the club let him go for free and even paid half a year's wages to get him out the club.
It's not that people are criticizing him but from what I am reading, there seems to be some sort of pleasure for people in seeing Rooney fail miserably. I don't understand that mindset and it makes normal people like myself become Rooney defenders.
And yet that chubby scouser is a club legend. Number one on the chart. It must suck to be you in this case.
Pethaps the people who were shot down laughed at for arguing Rooney was finished years ago are now feeling vindicated, and are having a bit of a laugh at his expense to let their frustrations out.
Indeed he was. And I think he knows he's done for.
Still strange having no Rooney at Utd anymore.
So you feel vindicated about Rooney struggling 4 years after you said he was crap. Doesn't make sense does it. How does that vindicate you?
It's marvellous.
Like someone said, the people touting the 'he played too many games' myth should take into account that Rooney went to shit like 3 years ago
Well yeah, the Rooney of the last few years isn't something you want, but I've only known United with Rooney in the team.
He is a legend, but he also took the piss a bit didn't he? And for that reason, I'm fine with the piss taking.
One thing for sure is that Mourinho handled the 'rooney problem' brilliantly. Ferguson would have dealt with it if he hadn't retired by selling him. Moyes didn't and actually gave him a grandiose status again. LVG couldn't deal with it. Mourinho at the beginning praised him but was clear where he thought his playing position was, played him at first, but slowly phased him out without insulting him and then quietly moved him to Everton with a sense of nostalgia....the boy kid returning home which didn't threaten Rooney's ego. Bloody brilliant handling.
Absolutely. It can never be said Mourinho didn't give him a chance.
So Rooney has played 757 matches in his career - that's 500-600 at the very top level. That's far better than most players ever have, and he's won everything at Club level. Of course he's played a lot of matches! Not everyone can do a Giggs/ Scholes/ Maldini.
Remember when Mourinho bid 25m + Mata + Luis for him. Moyes should have taken that but didn't have the bottle. That has been proven to value over £100m since.
tbh a lot of ppl knew and called it for a very long time, it wasn't really that hard to see
That's fair enough.
I'm nearly 40 and remember better players than Rooney. I was never his biggest fan, even when he was at his best.
Have always thought he was hugely overrated. Excellent player in his prime though and Ronaldo --- Tevez --- Rooney were a joy to watch.
Wow hindsight is a bitch! I remember Chelsea bidding 25m for him back then but I don't remember them offering Mata + Luiz, that's fecking crazy we didn't take up that offer. He could have been Chelsea's problem for the last four years.
It appeared that United leaked the swap details and Chelsea later denied it but given that both Mata and Luiz were sold within a year I am inclined to believe that to be true.
i agree with this, don't know if you're joking but the sentiment is right imo
the "he played too many games" is just another in a long arsenal of excuses for rooney
He was done in 2012. But with Rooney there seems to have been this odd lag in accepting it. Despite the frequently poor performances there's always been some kind of excuse to justify them. Whether it's the odd conclusion that he was mismanaged and played out of position (the reason being he was no longer good enough to play as a striker) or the incessant reference to his goal scoring record. The media hasn't helped either, they've pandered to him and blown anything he has done way out of proportion.
SAF quitting was a painful milestone, in regards to Rooney there's somewhat a sense of liberation for me and probably many others. I'm quite interested in seeing how he'll do, but unless it turns super ugly for him I don't think observing this Everton transplant is going to sadden me.
Pub quiz question. Do you know what types were Wayne's last 3 goals for United? One was scored from a penalty and 2 others were deflected strikes. It's almost too symbolic for this agonal phase of his career.
I think he will continue as he has played lately for United, perhaps looking a bit sharper initially but not much difference. Rooney doesn't have anything left to offer, sadly.
Stoke goal was good though.
Not joking at all. You can't say his legs are gone because he's played ~750 games without acknowledging that he's been on a sharp decline for a while. I'd say his last decent season was Moyes'. He wasn't great by his standards, but he was one of the few players that came out of that season with any credit. In the 3 following seasons he's played around 130+ games. So he started to drop off at around 620 games.
By comparison, Ronaldo is still performing at 860+ games.
I think it's pent up frustration pouring out as hysterical relief. He's shit, but he's not our problem any more. Huzzah!
Don't get me wrong, Rooney is a club legend, and I get that we should be protective of our club legends when they leave. I didn't like seeing Ferdinand or Ji-Sung Park toiling away at QPR, for example. But for a lot of fans, I don't think that love for Rooney was quite the same. His public spats with the club and his falling out with Fergie damaged his reputation with a lot of fans, and then to be paid such a huge amount for the performances he put in in those last 3 years was absurd. We also had that period where managers seemed to be scared to drop him, regardless of performances.
All of that is why a huge portion of our fanbase wanted him gone so badly, and why there's not much sympathy about his current plight.
Need to put more context into stats. Rooney has been on decline for quite a while now. Which means many of the latter games he played, his contribution is not on same level while kept on playing for the sake of my captain is always play or crawling over the line for the scoring record... In short, he declined much sooner when other players are still going strong. Those players still have more to offer at higher level than Rooney now. So with context, Rooney indeed fall very short.
Yeah the goal v Stoke was stunning.
Usain Bolt is over the hill at 30 as well.
What's Usain Bolt got to do with Rooney?
Rooney should start doping.
Absolutely - you could see a clear decline in the Spring of Moyes' season with us. He went from one of the better players in the early part or the season after signing his new contract; to the poster boy for mediocrity by the time he was sacked (although of course not alone).
That was 3 and a half years ago. He was 28 years old. The only reason a 28 year old shows an immediate decline of form is due to either a mental problem or years of physical excesses taking their toll.
Funnily enough the exact same age as Ricky Hatton when he nosedived for the same reason.