Look Roo’s smiling.. it’s Everton’s best summer since 1985 when they grabbed Gary Lineker
WHEN Jose Mourinho was asked at his first Manchester United press conference where he would play Wayne Rooney he spewed out numbers like a bingo caller on speed.
“For me he will be a nine, a 10, a nine-and-a-half, but never a six or an eight.” It was a diplomatic way of saying he would not let his captain have a midfield place simply because of his name. That he either proved himself as a striker or his number was 12.
Ronald Koeman, speaking as Rooney checked in at Everton on Monday, appeared to be on the same page: “He can be a 10 behind the striker, in a free role from the left, a nine, a seven.” In other words, no place is guaranteed. It’s up to Rooney to win a role in his attack or sit on the bench.
Which gives credence to sceptics, including myself, who question why a revitalised club would take an ageing squad player with such a high profile from the team that finished one place above them and risk the fall-out if he’s no longer up to it. But opinions can change. And witnessing Rooney’s return crank up the feelgood factor at Goodison, it doesn’t feel like much of a risk at all.
If he’s a busted flush, Koeman is big enough to use him the way Mourinho did last season and you’d hope after that experience plus the respect he has for Everton, Rooney would accept his role and fight for a starting place.
If he still has goals and assists to offer and the desire to pass on his knowledge to Everton’s exceptional youngsters, then it will be a decent move for all parties. But in cushioning the blow of losing Romelu Lukaku and the refusal of Ross Barkley, their best home-grown talent since Rooney, to buy into their new-found ambition, it feels like it is already.
An Evertonian’s summer is usually more miserable than a wet week in Southport, with nothing happening until the last day when a couple of loanees enter and their most saleable asset exits to keep the banks happy.
Now, as Koeman looks poised to smash through the £100million barrier early in the window, Evertonians feel their club matters again.
Rooney’s return adds to that because his departure caused fans so much pain. They were awestruck when he came through, believing they’d unearthed their greatest player since Dixie Dean with the added bonus he was a diehard Blue.
When he was unveiled at Old Trafford Alex Ferguson remarked that it would have been a dereliction of duty for him not to have signed a potential world-class talent playing down the road, effectively defining Everton as a local feeder club. Considering the Blues had been champions of England more times than United when Fergie arrived in Manchester, that hurt.
Rooney’s return, with a burning desire to win something at a club that last lifted a trophy in 1995, hardens the belief among Evertonians that under a rich backer, with a top manager and a new stadium on the way, they may finally be heading back to the big time.
Fans live in the future. Unless you’re still in the drunken haze of winning a trophy it’s all about what happens next. It’s about hope and optimism.
And there has not been such pre-season optimism at Goodison since 1985 when, as league title winners, they fended off all-comers to buy Gary Lineker.
Where that optimism leads, like where Rooney plays, doesn’t need to be dwelt on.
Evertonians, so pessimistic in recent decades, are feeling good again.
That will do them for now.