If I were to ask you who scored more goals for Manchester United, Robin van Persie last season or Wayne Rooney the year before, I’d suggest most people would assume that it was the Dutchman.
You can probably guess from my tone and the rather leading title of my piece that it was indeed Wayne.
He scored 27 goals in 32 starts and two sub appearances compared with Van Persie’s 26 in 35 with 3 sub appearances.
I personally find this quite surprising given the clamour for Van Persie to be crowned Player of the Year and the general acceptance that United only won the league title because the ex Arsenal man signed for them.
It has led me to believe that fans and the media alike take the Liverpudlian for granted.
Following the blaze of publicity and whirl of expectation that greeted his introduction into the English game there seems to be a negativity that trails him due to the fact that he’s not averaging more than a goal a game like Messi and Ronaldo.
People still talk of Michael Owen’s finishing prowess in glowing terms and go on about him being a natural goal scorer yet he has never scored 20 league goals in a season, Rooney has now done this twice so far.
Owen, in the days when normal people could, even won European footballer of the year. This is before the “freaks” took over and started banging in 60 goals a season; it’s no disgrace to be trailing in their wake come nomination time.
I feel Rooney like David Beckham in many ways has had his off field notoriety detract from how he is perceived as a footballer.
Becks with his pop star wife, fashion interests, model looks and exotic kids names, Rooney with Coleen, pensioner references, his, er …looks and Kai and Klay, people are no longer just judging him for what he can do on the field.
Rooney in anyone’s terms has an excellent scoring record for Manchester United, 144 goals in 277 Premier League games, a further 56 in Europe and cup competitions.
Only Ruud van Nistelrooy and Denis Law of strikers who have played more than a 100 games for the club have better goals per game ratio, that puts him ahead of the likes of Yorke, Cole, Best, Hughes, Ronaldo and Cantona, to name but a few.
It should also be remembered that Rooney’s stats could have been even better had he not so often sacrificed his role as a front man to do a job for the team in another position, something that those currently lining up to accuse him of selfishness should think about.
Allen Whyte