Its probably already been said but I will happily beat the drum. No more saints in the Englnd team PLEASE! Its the kiss of death. Ego's go mental, performance turns to ****e and everyone swans out the door with nothing but a full-page glamour shot in the local paper to say thanks. Need them in the England team like we need another mass exodus. If the players have any sense they would look back at the recent England debacle and go, nah thanks, I'm alright here ta.
Don't quite get this dislike of Rooney. Don't like the man for his sordid private life, but that is his wife's problem not ours....and it is fortunate we don't pick players for their pristine home life. He isn't as brilliant as he once promised to be, but the England manager isn't exactly overwhelmed with quality here. Unlike some, Rooney is an enthusiastic player for England...no one can doubt his desire to play for his country. He would probably have been a better player if England had been better and he didn't feel the need to go out of position trying to create something on his own.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...-Luke-Shaw-over-his-fitness-at-World-Cup.html Lukey, Lukey...seems Hodgson was concerned about Shaw's fitness at the WC. Why wasn't this being picked up at Saints...oh yes, because our manager no longer cared.
I think he was dead and buried by the hype surrounding him before he even got going. Expectations for him were staggering right from the start really and the moment he didn't deliver that, most perspective on him was lost and he became the figurehead of any perceived England/Man utd failure.
He was possibly the best player at Euro 2004 in Portugal, he scored 4 goals and was a worldwide superstar at just 18, but somehow was never the same player after the injury he sustained against Portugal in the quarter final. We can only imagine what might have happened if that injury hadn't happened.
I can remember when Rooney scored that great goal in Euro 2004. I actually said, 'You are a god.' A massive loss to us when he got injured.
I can tell you what wouldn't have happened... Another inept England manager wouldn't have put Darius Vassell on up front with Michael Owen leaving us with no-one to hold the ball up and two little strikers waiting in the shoulder of the CB. It was the one time we really did need Emile Heskey on the pitch. It's ok though, I have let it go.....
Not if he listens to his new manager...a short, sharp shock could work for him. He's done well because of talent and having youth on his side...now he has to learn that he has a responsibility to his body. Hope he doesn't become one of those kids who earns a vast amount of money being okay at a top club.
I can't see that really. Too much talent there and too much structure at a club like United to allow that to happen.
I think some of these "unfit" claims are because Van Gaal wants him as a wingback which requires a lot more stamina.
I understand what you mean about his on field and off field behaviour being separate Fran. However, when my 8 year old son found out about Rooney's 'Granny antics' from his friends and said to me that he thought captains were supposed to be role models, I didn't have an answer for him!
Today a friend, who has even less interest in football than she has in raising yaks, asked me about Rooney as Captain, partly to make conversation and partly with pride she had even noticed a football fact. Boy, did she regret asking......
Agree, at Saints although he pushed forward we would always drop in a midfielder to cover his back. I would often notice him jogging back if a team was on the counter after one of his forays forward which sadly rarely resulted in a goal. As Hodgson points out in the article Shaw is still growing and his fitness needs to be carefully managed, but you wonder after the investment that united have made in him that they will take quite the same care. I don't think it's a coincidence that all our teenagers who have left for bigger clubs have succumbed to large spells on the sidelines whilst their bodies adjust
Although I would say it because it is what I always harp on about you should read Neville's article about 'the golden generation'. The best English player at that time was Scholes. Where was he played? On the left wing. Doh Without a doubt from the moment Jorge Andrade stamped (yes it was a stamp not an accident) on Rooney's foot he has never been the same explosive player. He used to take people on and in Wanyama style just lean on them while he was running with the ball and they would bounce off. That was a very 'cynical' thing to do in that game and was a succesful attempt to injure England's danger player. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...e-Gary-Neville-on-the-end-of-England-era.html
