He goes by the name of Wayne Rooney

October 2010: Wayne Rooney confirms his rumoured desire to leave Manchester United Football Club by releasing the following statement.

“I met with David Gill [United chief executive] last week and he did not give me any of the assurances I was seeking about the future squad. I then told him that I would not be signing a new contract.”

The Manchester United faithful held their hearts in their hands, collectively said “Don’t go Wazza” and after a dramatic U-turn, he signed a new 5 year deal, making him the highest earning player at this club, something he truly deserved and a great relief for all of us.

Come March 2013, he was left out of the starting line-up in favour of one of Welbeck, Nani or Giggs in what was the biggest tie of the season – the return leg against Real Madrid in the Champions League. All of us were like, “Oh god, not Giggs again”, remembering all those important matches in which he played as a central midfielder. Though all three of the above mentioned players did pretty well in that match, it was also the inception of the rumours of Wayne Rooney’s Manchester exit (again). Wayne has not had a great season considering his stellar last season, but 16 goals and 14 assists in 37 appearances (6 of them from the bench and many more when he was prematurely withdrawn) is not at all a bad return for a player who has been injured twice in the season and had to play out of position numerous times. Not by any standards. None of us were happy seeing Wazza starting on the bench or being taken off in many matches, including all of those who were shouting curses against him. I never understood why Fergie insisted on playing van Persie in each and every match, even the low profile ones and more importantly, during that slump of his. I was puzzled, why wouldn’t he start Chicharito? He did finish the season strongly though, scoring some memorable goals, particularly the second one against Aston Villa.

To be frank, Rooney was never given the chance to be the player he promised to be when he shot to prominence with a wonderful strike against Arsenal as a 16-year-old in the Everton blue. Everything went fine till he made the big money transfer to Manchester United, becoming the then most expensive teenage footballer (deservingly). But United already had a player determined to reach the top, racing on the highway to heaven – Cristiano Ronaldo. To bring the best out of players like Messi and Ronaldo, they have to be made the focal point of their teams’ attack. No doubt, you need to have quality players around them, but they had to be complimenting these great players and playing in their shadow rather than trying to come out of the eclipse (like Zlatan Ibrahimovich tried at Barcelona). And Rooney, whose name is supposed to be included with those two’s, sadly was made one of those quality players surrounding them. He was supposed to be a great player like them, but was confined to being a good player complimenting Ronaldo. They both thrived together, built a deadly partnership with Tevez and the attacking trinity almost brought us a second treble in 2008. But Ronaldo was the big man. He sold the most jerseys, fans sang for him and he was our go-to man.

After a disappointing loss to Barcelona in the UEFA CL final, 2009 in Rome, both Ronaldo and Tevez left United. The former to make his boyhood dream of playing for Real Madrid come true and the latter to the place he should have least chosen, Manchester City. Then was the chance for Rooney to shine. As our go-to man. As our star, a talisman. He didn’t fail us. Fergie said “Watch Wayne go” and yes we did watch in awe, as he scored goal after goal. A total of 34 in 42 appearances. But it wasn’t enough for us to win the league and we had to be content with being the winners of the Carling Cup, or the Mickey Mouse Cup as some call it. But Wayne Rooney gave us a glitter of hope.

Come the 2010-2011 season. A little Mexican forward was brought in from unknown lands and Welbeck came in from the Mancunian homelands, but was sent on loan to Sunderland. So we had four forwards again, including the silky Berba and Michael Owen donning the legendary number 7 jersey. To accommodate all of them, Wayne Rooney had to move all over, once again. We stayed behind him, saying that he was all over the pitch. I see only one reason behind his first transfer request – Ferguson’s obsession to have as many as strikers possible. Central midfield is the weak link of your team and when you already have world class forwards like Ronaldo, Rooney and Tevez, why break the bank and go all guns for Berbatov? Fine. You have Rooney firing on all cylinders, Berbatov settling in and Welbeck coming in through the ranks – why go for another striker instead of buying a good central midfielder? Wesley Sneijder, may be? Fergie’s obsession with strikers has made life difficult for Wayne Rooney the striker. Wayne Rooney the footballer still played his heart out in every match, wherever he was deployed – be it a striker one match, a deep lying forward the other or a left attacker in another.

The league was won, yet another Champions League final was lost to Barcelona in which the most expensive player in the club’s history and the top scorer of the Premier League for that season could not even make the bench and the new boy, Hernandez, finished the season with 20 goals and was a fan favourite. Yet another match was lost due to our inferiority in the middle of the pitch. Berbatov fell out of favour in the next season and Wayne once again became the heart throb of our attacks the next season. The season which marked the so-called rise of the blue moon, Rooney finished with 27 league goals. But the season ended without any silverware, not because our attack was lacking but we got ran over in the middle of the pitch when it mattered once again and a season ending injury to our captain Vidic. We couldn’t just match the midfield consisting of Yaya Toure and David Silva and ended losing the league on goal difference. The lack of mettle in the centre of the pitch can be understood when Paul Scholes was recalled from retirement (though we were having many injury problems, none of our then injured midfielders would have been a match for those of the European powerhouses). Once again, no midfielder was signed in the transfer window. But instead Berbatov was offloaded and the captain of a long standing rival club, Robin van Persie, was signed.

He had just had his best season in an Arsenal shirt and he listened to the little boy screaming “Manchester United” inside him and switched Arsenal’s 10 for Manchester United’s 20. He signed in by giving the statement – I want to win you the 20^th title and hence the number 20. It was not hard for him to win over us, his goal scoring was that prolific. Great goals, great run of goals, late match winning goals, comeback inspiring goals. He had them all. He was an instant hit and was compared to King Eric. Poor Rooney came back unfit as always, and had an injury in only the second match of the season, and was out for about a month. That time was enough for Robin to make his mark. Rooney was once again pushed off the perch of the team’s talisman. This time for van Persie. Persie became the focal point of our attack, the poster boy, and he even toppled Wayne in the jersey sales. His goals were highly applauded. Everyone talks about his stoppage time winner in the Manchester derby and his sublime hat-trick against Aston Villa.

But what everyone forgot was it was Rooney who scored the 2 goals to give us a first half lead. No one talks about his raking cross field passes against Aston Villa which lead to the first two goals and those against Cluj in the Champions League. He got taken off on numerous occasions where he was clearly one of the better players going forward. None of us talk about his impact in the second half of the home game against Tottenham. Ferguson says “Wayne Rooney on top form wouldn’t be taken off”. I’d say Wayne Rooney on average form is still better than many in our squad. I’d say he cannot reach top form when he is played as a striker in one match, a central midfielder in the next and is on the bench in the other. What does he do in training? Does he train to improve his passing and the movement in the midfield region or does he do a normal striker’s training? What else can you expect from a player who is not sure about his role in the team other than clumsiness on the ball and yet, he is still better than most players? Rooney is capable of taking a shot from 30 yards out but now he is unable to decide whether he has to take a shot or try to set another teammate up. Like many say, his versatility is his curse.

Two times when central midfield has been the need of the hour, a new striker has been brought in and in order to accommodate all of them, it has been Wayne Rooney who was moved all over the pitch. I don’t find it surprising that he has asked for a transfer or for assurance over his role in the team. Messi once said, “Rooney would even play for 100k euros a week, such is his love for the game”. For me, that is true. Rooney would play anywhere for the team, but that would eventually anger his well-wishers and his family and it must be on their persuasion that he went to the extent of asking for a transfer. Wayne Rooney isn’t just about goals. He isn’t the poster boy that would make girls go haywire, like Ronaldo. He is bald and that recent hair transplant isn’t far from average. He isn’t a technical genius like Robin. What he brings to the team, apart from the goals, cannot be caught on YouTube videos and banners. All of us want Ronaldo to return and Robin to score in every single match. We sing and cry for the Ronaldos and Robins. Master Wayne is taken for granted. He will play anywhere for the team, he loves the game and he loves the club. He will do all on his own. Won’t he? We have never given him the support that he deserves. If it is true that Antonio Valencia referred to Messi as the best, Ronaldo as an inspiration and Rooney as the heartbeat of Manchester United, I’d dare to say on similar grounds that “He’s the hero we deserve, but the not the hero we need right now. We ignore him. Because he can take it. A dark knight”. It has been the case always, except for those two seasons in which he set the pitch on fire with his goals. Ah, and what bad luck the boy has, we didn’t win the league in exactly those two seasons.

Maybe he can take it no more. Maybe he has had enough. I have not seen any other player kissing the badge on the jersey with more vigour and love than Rooney did. Whether he stays or leaves, I wish Wayne Rooney plays for a team where he’d have a last chance at reaching the promised land, as was expected of him when he was young. May be it’s too late now to become the White Pele that he was introduced to the world as, but he can still become the white knight of the team he’d play for.