Wayne Rooney: The Case For The Defence

Remember this guy….

Over the past 24 hours Wayne Rooney has gone from being a player many were debating about to public enemy number one in the minds of many Reds, as popular as Luis Suarez at an Evra/Ivanovich barbecue and seemingly about as likely to play for United again as Reginald D Hunter is to receive a booking from the PFA.

The stories of Rooney’s alleged [at the time of writing nothing has been confirmed] second transfer request in two years have sent twitter into a meltdown, no doubt exacerbated by the sense of loss and disbelief at life without Sir Alex at the helm. As if the stories regarding Rooney’s transfer request wasn’t bad enough for the Stretford End faithful, there’s also the issue of a changed twitter bio that now reads Nike athlete rather than United utility player or second fiddle to Danny Welbeck in the big games. First of all let me be brutally honest- see paragraph one- I genuinely couldn’t give a toss what Wayne Rooney’s twitter bio states, I don’t even follow him on there as I’ve little interest in what film he’s watching or how Ashley Cole made him laugh. Secondly looking at his bio due to the five million retweets I’ve seen on my timeline, he’s still wearing a United kit on it so he’s hardly completely denied his employment at the club. Thirdly and forgive me if I’m wrong on this, but according to other tweets I’ve read- admittedly not exactly evidence but from people I respect- he changed his bio weeks ago, along with Tom Cleverley, no doubt in exchange for a pair of free Nike shoelaces or something equally as worth all the hassle.

Then we move on to Colleen Rooney, the heavily pregnant Colleen Rooney who like her husband has been abused on Twitter because Wayne may or may not be leaving United. I’ll state this clearly and without any jest involved, if your reading this and you sent Colleen Rooney abusive tweets you’re a complete and utter cretin who I’d rather supported Leeds United where that sort of behaviour is practically encouraged.

Both Rooney’s have been abused on twitter practically non-stop for a whole day, which while hardly the world’s worst offence does leave a bad taste in the mouth for me – again following my ‘honest’ vow. Rooney is still a United player, he may not want to be but he is and until he leaves I for one will get behind him, or at the very least not abuse him. None of us even know if Rooney and David Moyes have spoken since the Scot took over – again at the time of writing- so they could well decide the striker has a future- after all it’s not Moyes who’s been subbing, dropping and moving around Rooney all over the shop for the past few months. Sir Alex was obviously not too impressed with parts of Rooney’s game, a sentiment I can understand, but Moyes may feel differently.

Rooney has been inconsistent all season, yet he’s still spent weeks out with a horrific gash for charging down a shot no one would criticise him for pulling out of, well actually knowing our track record with him we probably would have. Rooney’s also contributed vital goals when Robin Van Persie suddenly stopped scoring, including winners against Fulham, Reading and Southampton. Let’s not forget that Rooney also bagged a brace at the Etihad in a game that had United lost, the title race may well have had an entirely different complexion.

I understand the frustration with Rooney, as my good friend Chudi from the Busby Way pointed out to me only a few days ago, his ‘bottom level’ is dreadful almost that of a League One player. The thing is Rooney’s ‘top level’ is arguably only one rung below the Ronaldos and Messi’s of this world.

Should United decide to sell Rooney to say PSG for around the same price we bought him, is that even the end of the world? Does that even warrant a torrent of abuse? He’ll have played for us for nearly a decade and won countless trophies becoming one of our all-time top scorers to boot. Should we then despise him if he leaves? Unless it’s for City or perhaps Chelsea then probably not. I understand people’s frustration with Rooney’s inconsistent performances and his lack of fitness at times and if I’m honest- that word again- I don’t even have that much of a problem with him leaving such is his frustrating form, but until he does, I’ll defend him like I would any other United player getting dogs abuse. 12 goals and 10 assists in a title winning season isn’t that bad and there’s always THAT goal to remember….

Am I wrong to defend ‘Wazza’? Feel free to comment suggest and abuse below:

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