Wayne
Rooney has recently placed a second transfer request at Manchester United. He
has also, reportedly anyway, said that he is prepared to perform a U-turn on
this decision and stay at Manchester United. Regardless of how Moyes decides to
react to this it is evident that Rooney is a volatile character who requires
specific man management.
Rooney's
second transfer request was placed after he fell out Ferguson's favour. Rooney
has been playing second fiddle to Robin Van Persie, exactly the type of player
Rooney believed Manchester United were not willing to sign when placing his
first transfer request. Subsequently Rooney has found himself playing further
back, sometimes as a centre forward and other times as far back as
central/holding midfielder. Rooney has a game suited to these roles, partially
down to Rooney's physical attributes. That will, however, be discussed later.
It took an excellently executed press conference by the outgoing Sir Alex
Ferguson to convince Rooney to stay at Manchester United in the wake of the
first transfer request, is Moyes capable of talking Rooney into changing his
mind a second time?
Moyes,
as everyone knows, managed Wayne Rooney as a youngster at Everton. Their relationship
was far from the best, with Moyes suing Rooney for libel in 2008, following
accusations in the players autobiography that David Moyes leaked details of a
private conversation to the Liverpool Echo. Moyes won between £50,000 and
£150,000 and a "sincere apology" from Wayne Rooney. Since the legal
agreement was reached the pair are said to be on amicable terms, however this
may be put under significant stress as they enter into a working relationship.
Although that is dependent on Moyes wanting to keep Rooney. Ferguson famously
let a player go if he considered himself larger than the club, with Moyes
chosen due to similar values as Ferguson then there is more than a chance that
Moyes will also sell players he believes have such an attitude. There are
certainly clubs willing to buy Rooney too, with PSG, Bayern Munich, Chelsea and
Monaco all rumoured suitors. The final factor likely to force Rooney out of the
door is the fans. Rooney was booed by fans during the open bus parade celebration,
and the talk of Falcao, Lewandowski or Fabregas as a replacement may cause
excitement amongst the fans.
If
the supposed U-turn is true and Rooney decides to stay with the newly crowned champions
then he may have to cope with playing deeper. Many claim that Rooney is coming
to the end of one of his worst seasons playing for Manchester United. He has,
however, registered ten league assists, the joint fourth most in the league (and only just overtaken by Cazorla's four assists against now relegated Wigan) and
only two fewer than PFA player of the year nominated and the league's top
creator, Juan Mata. Rooney has also scored twelve goals, whilst only placing
with joint 14th on the scoring table it does put his combined goals and assists
in the top eight across the whole league. His slump may not be reflected in the
numbers as strongly as some may suggest. Rooney also showed a capability of
playing elsewhere on the pitch, a convincing performance against Stoke in mid
April suggesting he could partner Carrick in midfield. This potential
positional shift could add both playing time to Rooney's future seasons and add
to Rooney's worth to Manchester United.
Whether
Rooney stays at Manchester United or not depends very much on what happens
behind closed doors between Rooney and Moyes. If Rooney commits his future 100%
to Manchester United and is willing to succumb completely to Moyes' future
plans. The statistics show that Rooney is of use to the team. However if Rooney
is not able the commit wholeheartedly to playing a large part of Moyes' first
few years as Manchester United manager then he should be sold to the highest
bidder outside of England.
By Alex Pointon
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