Why I don't rate Wayne Rooney.

Rooney a Legend? Not for me

Following the news that England's all time leading goal scorer is hanging up his International boots I'd like to put into words why I don't consider the Everton striker to be an England Legend. This is mostly about his England career not his club one.

 

I accept that it's an odd thing to not think the countries top goal scorer isn't a legend for his country but it's deeper than that. I think we get lost in this idea that numbers are the be all and end all and to an extent they are but it only takes a few minutes to look into those numbers and form an opinion on them. Let's got back a few years before we do that though.

 

Rooney up to and including Euro 2004

When Wayne Rooney broke onto the scene at Everton I don't deny he was a very exciting prospect, he was a rough striker that had no respect for anyone he came up against and that's a good thing. He was powerful and had the technique to score goals, the famous one against Arsenal is a great strike no denying that. England fans were well within their rights to be excited about this young lad. He broke into the England set up under Sven-Göran Eriksson and became a mainstay. He lit Euro 2004 up and arguably was England's best player at that tournament. If he'd not got injured who knows what might have happened. We could have gone on to win it had we not lost infamously on penalties to Portugal. After that summer's exploits Rooney got his move to Manchester United which was fairly deserved in my opinion. Big club who at the time were rebuilding after losing the title to Arsenal's invincibles.

 

 

The next 2 years and World Cup 2006

 

After his move to Manchester United Rooney was arguably the first name on an England team sheet and to be fair that was probably justifiable. He was the form striker heading into the World Cup in Germany and although he went into it injured there were a lot of hopes pinned on him. We all hoped he could produce the kind of explosive displays he put in in Portugal 2 years before. He didn't. His biggest impact was getting sent of stupidly against Portugal in the quarter final. Yeah you can blame Ronaldo all you want but Rooney was daft and paid the price. He had no positive impact on that campaign and that was for me a key turning point in Rooney's international career.

 

The next 4 years

 

Now to be fair to Rooney it's not his fault the FA decided to replace Sven-Göran Eriksson with Steve McClaren, a man handed the best group of England players since 1990 and failed to qualify for Euro 2008 in Austria/Switzerland. I believe under a decent managed England would have gone close in that tournament. Rooney arguably was in his best shape and just a year or so out from his peak. We'll never know what he could have done at Euro 2008 so it's unfair to judge him too much in this period.

 

The prime year and South Africa

 

The 2009/10 season was for me Wayne Rooney's best. He did score one more goal 2 seasons later in 2011/12 but in 2010 I'd say Rooney was England's best striker by a distance. There was no reason at all for him to not go out to South Africa and perform. Of course it isn't all down to him but he was one of the senior players, he was at his peak and he was in red hot form. He was dreadful, again not alone in this at all but this was another tournament he hadn't performed in and it was a major disappointment. For me I remember after England's humiliating 4-1 defeat to Germany thinking that if players like Rooney couldn't perform in a tournament like that after the season he'd had when would he?

 

A stupid red card and Euro 2012

The 7th of October 2011 for me summed Wayne Rooney's England career up. A daft red card against Montenegro in the last qualifier before the tournament meant he'd initially miss all three group games of the competition. Deserved in my opinion, a needless act of idiocy just like the stamp in 2006. He hadn't leant 5&1/2 years on. It was reduced on a appeal to two which for me was very lucky and this meant that now manager Roy Hodgson could justify taking him to Poland/Ukraine. England did ok without him, a very creditable draw with a good French team and a belting game against Sweden where England came out 3-2 winners in what I still think is the best England game in terms of excitement for years. Rooney returned for the last group game against Ukraine and to his credit scored a good header. Finally a tournament goal for Wayne Rooney again. Could this be the Launchpad for him to go on and justify the belief that some still had in him in an England shirt? The answers no, England were toothless as a side against Italy and were beaten again on Penalties.

 

World Cup 2014 and Euro 2016

I'm sure anyone reading this will agree neither of these tournaments were England's finest hours, I'm not going to blame Wayne Rooney for either campaign. The only thing I will say against him for them is that I don't really know why he was there in France in 2016. We weren't playing him as a striker and we had better midfield options, he was poor across all the games and despite a penalty against Iceland didn't do anything of any real merit. The world cup two years earlier was similar, his goal against Uruguay was a decent finish from memory but again in a defeat. The fact he was given the captaincy after that world cup was strange, it was time then for him to move on in my opinion. Let the younger talent come through. Instead we had to sleepwalk through another very poor campaign where Rooney's presence in my opinion was a hindrance to those players not a help.

 

The Numbers

So let's actually look at the goals of our record holder, where and who have they come from. Firstly there are 7 from international tournaments. 2 against Switzerland and 2 against Croatia at Euro 2004. His best tally at a single tournament, 1 against Ukraine at Euro 2012, 1 against Uruguay at the World Cup in 2014 in Brazil and 1 against Iceland at Euro 2016. Now with all due respect to all those sides I would hardly call it worth of legend status which is what this blog is about. So 7 of his 53 goals have come in tournament football which in my opinion isn't good enough. That leaves 44 goals in Qualifiers which often England are expected to win comfortably and Friendlies which England seem to take very seriously while the Germanys, Frances, Brazils and the like treat as well friendlies. Don't get me wrong he's scored against France and Brazil in his time and some other decent sides like Denmark and Croatia but is this really what we've come to call a legend? A legend should be something that is almost unattainable. The team of 1966 are legends, there are a few from prior to that and past it of course there are but Wayne Rooney's name for me isn't among them. He did a decent job for England I won't deny him that and for a lot of people my age he is probably the most consistent face we've seen for England but is that enough to make him a legend? I don't think so. I hope I've at the very least been able to offer a different view point to the Gary Lineker lead love in that is doing the rounds at the moment.

 

Thanks for reading

 

Tom

Season 2017/18: A Sheffield Wednesday Preview

As the football season is literally hours away (Sunderland play Derby tonight and Nottingham Forest host Millwall if you didn't know) I'd like to offer my thoughts ahead of the 2017/18 season and offer an opinion of one of the positive members of the Sheffield Wednesday fan base.

 

 

 

This years aims and objectives

The obvious objective this season is promotion to the Premier League, that has been underlined by those at the top and at the beginning of Dejphon Chansiri's third full season as owner of the football club I think it's a fair assessment that if we don't go up questions will be asked. Weather it be automatic or via the play offs, promotion has to be the aim. In my opinion (and I accept I find myself in the minority) the style of play wasn't the problem last year. In a lot of games we beat ourselves, missing chances that we would have buried the previous season, poor decision making in some games. This year if we start the way we finished last season ignoring the play offs and the Fulham game which was a training session then we'll be right up there. We all know we lack a centre back or possibly two. I have every confidence that this will be sorted. We didn't need to add a lot from last year, I think a lot of the moaning that has happened over the last three months mostly comes down to the fact a lot of fans still aren't used to the idea that we're actually a good side and that we don't need to rip everything up and start again like we did so many times in the past. We've built a good team, lead by a good manager.

 

 

The Key Men

 

If you look at the squad we currently have and compare it to past squads there for me is one big difference, there isn't one or two names that you pick out and say, "It's all on him" or "Well if he doesn't perform we're in for it". There is quality all around the pitch. Keiren Westwood is the best goalkeeper in the Championship, that's worth 7/8 points a season which could be huge in a race for the top two. Tom Lees and Glenn Loovens at the back are one of the best partnerships in the division. The likes of Hutchinson, Bannan, Lee, Jones and our new addition George Boyd are among the best in the division with plenty of Championship experience. Almen Abdi if we get him fit can dictate games, he was the key man in a Watford team that won promotion in 2015. Then we come to the strikers, the striker force at Hillsborough is the best in the league. Forget Middlesbrough, forget Aston Villa, forget Fulham. Sheffield Wednesday have a group of strikers that at this level should be the envy of all. Jordan Rhodes, Gary Hooper, Sam Winnall, Steven Fletcher, Atdhe Nuhiu, Lucas Joao and if you count him as a striker Fernando Foresrieri all do different things. Some are more prolific than others and some will have to work hard to earn their place but in terms of options we've got them. The final key man himself is the manager, Carlos Carvalhal. How people can't be behind a manager that has guided us to our two best league finishes since relegation from the Premiership is beyond me. He's shown he's got the ability to get a team challenging and with another year of Championship football under his belt he should have everything he needs to finish the job. Listening to the press conference yesterday I got the feeling that he believes this team will take that next step. George Boyd as well a man who has promotions on his CV as well as match winning ability was extremely positive facing the media. You get the sense they want it as much as the fans do.

Rhodes has a proven track record in this division.

 

My Own Personal Prediction

Personally if you offered me a Play Off Final place now I'd take it, I think most of us would. However I feel the top two is more than realistic, yes Villa have spent money and signed some good players, yes Middlesbrough look strong and have also signed some good players. If you had to push me for 3 to be in the Premier League this time next year they would be it. Wednesday, Villa and Boro.  I think Norwich will be strong, Derby and Leeds both have made shrewd signings and will be in the Play Off picture. The likes of Reading and Fulham who went close last year will be in the battle for the top 6 as well. As much as it is a tough division there isn't the sense of inevitability there was last year that Newcastle would ultimately have to much for the rest of the league and Brighton were just so consistent. There isn't that this year, it's more even. The only Brighton -esque team I see in the league this year is ourselves. If you look at what they had in 2016/17 compared to 2015/16 was another option to Tomer Hemed up front. They identified that and got Glenn Murray. Everything else was pretty much the same. We've done a similar thing, continuity can be key especially in a division like the Championship where if you're not up for learning and adapting you'll be found out. The likes of Wolves who've made massive changes might struggle even though everyone seems to be tipping them for success. Ultimately weather we are successful or not will come down to consistency, we lacked it for a long period of last season for various reasons but if we get off to a good start tomorrow at Deepdale then we have every chance. The one thing I'd say to any supporter unsure about Carlos or the players is let's see where we are in a few weeks time. Even if we aren't 'playing well' but winning stick with it, this team has shown in the past that positive results bring positive performances. We'll need to dig in and scrap at times, I don't imagine Saturday being anything other than a battle. It always is at Preston. Let's get behind them, last season I don't think enough of the fans got behind the players when they really needed it and it possibly cost us more than people realise. Let's go back to what we're best at, getting behind the team and pulling them through. We all want the same thing at the end of the day.

 

Thanks for Reading

 

Tom