This wouldn’t be the first time this season that David Moyes has made a decision that has come across as puzzling. The heated defence of United’s one-dimensional crossing game against Fulham, placing his players in unfamiliar roles and an over-reliance on the word ‘luck’ in his press conferences all stick out in a debut term that has been filled with disappointing results. Last summer, Moyes decided that Wayne Rooney, a player who had spent the summer swimming in discontent following a falling out with Sir Alex Ferguson, should be retained at all costs. Since then, Rooney has been treated like royalty, and has been rewarded for being Moyes’ stand-out performer with an eye-watering 5 and a half year contract worth £300k per week. It’s a remarkable turnaround for the club’s highest earner given how seemingly inevitable a summer exit felt in the wake of Ferguson’s retirement, but the overwhelming feeling it provokes is disappointment, whichever way you slice it.
Put simply, Rooney doesn’t deserve to be placed on such a sycophantic pedestal given how thoroughly disrespectful he’s been to the club that made him a household name. The notion that he didn’t in fact ask for a transfer request last summer is accepted, but there can’t be any doubt that Chelsea’s advances were of great interest to him having ended last season out of the side and relegated to a supporting role behind Robin Van Persie as the team’s talisman. Strong concerns with Rooney’s conditioning, lifestyle and application left the England international without a leg to stand on, even if he had legitimate worries about his deployment on the pitch. His response to Van Persie’s form was limp, especially when considering that he’d once threatened to leave United having received no assurances that the club would bring in players of the highest calibre.
Moyes’ reasoning for such an extravagant show of affection for a player that his predecessor was finished with isn’t hard to understand; Rooney has been United’s best player in a poor season, and has shown the sort of effort and commitment to the cause that the Scot craves in his players. He sees Rooney as a leader, maybe a future captain if rumours are to be believed, and whilst fears that he might have scuppered United’s title challenge whilst wearing the shirt of a Premier League rival have been thoroughly unfounded given the club’s poor form, Moyes clearly feels that the club cannot afford to lose him. From Rooney’s perspective, after that pronounced fallout with Ferguson, this is a most welcome outcome that’ll see him earning £1.2m per month before tax well into his thirties at a club that was clearly dying to retain his services.
Quite why that’s the case is anyone’s guess. Rooney is a great talent, and has, strops aside, been a great Manchester United player. You don’t get within striking distance of Sir Bobby Charlton’s scoring record by accident, and he has been a huge part of the club’s success over the last decade. He is not, however, a Manchester United man. He has made serious motions towards forcing an exit from the club on two separate occasions, and has twice gleefully accepted a pay rise having made his dissatisfaction clear.
Rooney should surely be in the prime of his footballing career to warrant such unprecedented treatment. Simply put, he isn’t. At 28 years old, there’s a sense that those two seasons in which he plundered 34 goals were blips, and as his career progresses, his lifestyle will eventually cripple his effectiveness on the pitch. Even taking into account the change in Rooney’s role, which will guarantee a smaller goal return, this contract feels too big a price to pay in order to pluck the best form from a player who has never truly fulfilled his rich potential.
At this point, the idea of building a team around Rooney sticks in the throat, but it’s something that United fans will simply have to tolerate. Placating the England international’s needs appears to be a key part of Old Trafford’s new regime, with the likelihood of the number 10 watching games like a last sixteen European Cup tie with Real Madrid from the bench all but gone. Even the notoriously slow pace with which he returns to form from injury is already being indulged, with Moyes already preferring to play a fit Juan Mata out wide than displace Rooney in order to aid his recovery. It’s maddening treatment, and treatment that he is not deserving of from this club or any other. But having placated his ire with a bumper contract in late 2010, the club have been left with little option but to up his wages even further in order to retain his services.
There’s still a chance that Wayne Rooney will prove that he is worthy of the status of the Premier League’s highest paid player and he may soften a few of the hearts that have long been hardened by his actions. More likely is the fact that his best days in a United shirt are behind him, and this bumper contract prolongs an association that the club could probably do without as the first-team rebuild begins in earnest. The club has trotted out the standard picture of smiling faces as Rooney puts pen to paper, yet that only tells a small part of the story.
15 replies on “Wayne Rooney's new contract a bitter pill to swallow”
Who would not do want he has done, end of the day we all would do the same, so leave him alone. He his the best what he does, so us fans should be happy and he plays for our shirt and gives his best. He loves everton but he loves us well, so respect. He can earn whatever he can get
mahn av read som realy crappy articles dis tops
all. Must u hate nd make everything at man utd sound bad . its a gud thing dat rooney signed a bew cntrct he is 1 of d best no 10 in d w
orld accept it and quit being a prohet of doom
Couldn’t disagree more. This was vital for us as a team, a business, and for our future. Where would we be without him in the league? And without him, we probably wouldn’t have been anywhere near as successful as we have been with him.
In addition, a player who is regarded by many as the best no.10 in the league, has been top scorer, played in CL finals, and been in the world XI, pledging his future to United with the signing of Mata ensures the top players across the world don’t see us as a sinking ship (which may have happened had Rooney ‘jumped’.
Under Ferguson, Rooney was out of shape, unfit, unhappy and often not in-form. Under Moyes he is fit, happy and playing very well. Any player would want to play in the same team as him.
Excellent work by Moyes.
I am so sorry to burst your bubble but what you wrote is factually right but morally incorrect. His love of the club cannot be questioned after him giving us so many match winning moments, when a manager decides to leave you on the bench for the most important game (Real Madrid) of the season let alone other matches. It is hard to digest for a player at his peak and caliber like Rooney’s that the manager is questioning his abilities no matter what the tactical reasons. Growing frustrated due to lack of opportunity any player let alone a player of his caliber. I am delighted and so should you.
That’s not true! He did want to leave but that doesn’t mean that he is not a manutd man! There’s a problem with the previous manager that he couldn’t have the match time that he needed to prove himself, that turns out to be frustating him. And the media such a bull, which have stressed him even more!! I believe every person has their own way to show how much they love the club, and Wayne’s way you can see in the match. How much he sacrificed himself these years, since there are holes in united’s defense and midfield? Consider his will to sprint down the field to defend, that is not his responsibility really. Will Wayne’s succesor do the same thing?
Final confirmation, the lunatics have taken over the asylum.
Another nail in the coffin
“a player who has never truly fulfilled his rich potential”. Absolute rubbish. Internationally perhaps, but i couldn’t care less about that. Hes a great United player without doubt.
Of course Wayne is a united man the team should be built around him he gives his all on the pitch plays all over he needs to play in his best position rvp is injury prone in the last 8 seasons rvp has only completed more than 28 games once and that was last season arsenal fans will tell you that you need more than rvp and in roos best 2 seasons he played as a main striker out mata behind him and we will score lots of goals you could even put Kagawa there give him enough games and he will produce he hasn’t had a run of games as number 10 just think roo mata Kagawa and januzi as a deont 4 they will petrify teams with so much creativity and it allows carrick to sit back and let fullbacks provide width as well it works for barca and Bayern and Chelsea and us when we has Ronaldo roo and tevez with nani usually being the other one in front 4 with Keane and scholes in midfield and Neville and evra/heinze getting forward all we need in this nwwmew team is a replacement fir scholes a new left back like Shaw and a world class centre back
Paying this amount of money to any sports person is pathetically ridiculous. Questioning Rooneys dedication to Man Utd maybe questionable but his love and commitment for the game has been evidenced on many an occasion.
Let’s face it 90 % of the players Moyes has attempted to sign don’t want to come to old trafford. Mata is a good player but is he 38 million and as for the ” bushy haired Belgian ” then let’s leave it there.
Rooney is not in the top 5 players in the Prem. Manchester valuation is not based only on his contribution it’s based on keeping him and not letting him go elsewhere. So the bottom line is Moyes can’t sign anybody so anybody that can play let’s double their money and kep them.
Guys, I appreciate the fact that this is a negative article, but I don’t view this is as a totally positive outcome for the club. He doesn’t take good care of himself, he isn’t playing at the level that such wages would normally warrant and he’s shown a pattern of spitting his dummy out of the pram when things don’t go his way. He’s a good player, no doubt, but he isn’t worthy of this treatment.
Having someone of Wayne Rooney’s name in the team will attract the right kind of signing. If he had left other signings may not have been attracted to a club not playing in the champions league. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was RVP who left this summer.
The details of the new contract for Rooney have not been released by him nor the club. Its only the newspapers making the usual up, he’s on £500,000 per day or whatever nonsense they’re spouting today. He could be on the same money, he could be more, but as long as his performs to the top level he can then it’ll be money well spent.
Seems like a slanted argument to me and sounds somewhat like a rant!
Moyes and the club were left with little option other than to offer Rooney a new,improved contract,as it would have cost far more to replace him than the overall spend on the new contract he has signed.
Had Rooney been playing badly this season,then they may have let him go,but he hasn’t;along with Januzaj he’s been far and away our best player-in a poor season I’ll admit-but that fact is indisputable.
I would admit that Rooney is a marmite player to many United fans-including me at times-especially given the fact that he hasn’t always seemed ,or been,100% committed to the cause recently,but we are where we are with this,and we need to get behind both him and the club as we rebuild for next season.
What makes you think he doesn’t take care of himself? He never stops. Hes been uniteds best player this season. If Utd didn’t pay him the supposed 300k Chelsea, barca, Munich, etc all certainly would.
[…] does not appear to have shown loyalty to the club. For certain supporters there is a feeling that Rooney does not deserve to be placed on such a pedestal by Manchester […]