Roo’s not on Gazza route

MUCH mud has been hurled at Wayne Rooney over his drink-drive charge and subsequent domestic issues.

Most of it recycled from the last time muck was thrown at him for stepping out of line. My favourite came from sports psychotherapist Steve Pope, who warned: “He is showing all the signs of becoming another Gazza.”

This is a truly original line of thought, what with it only being said 1,573 times since Rooney had the audacity to pick up the 2002 Young Sports Personality of the Year award chewing gum with his tie undone.

It is a comparison that is drawn because it gives moralisers who despise working-class footballers getting rich hope that Rooney (above, left) will end up in the gutter, thus proving them right. But does the comparison hold?

Paul Gascoigne’s top-flight career was effectively over before he was 27, having won fewer than half as many England caps as Rooney.

By the time Gazza (above, right) was Rooney’s age he’d been treated for bulimia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, bipolar disorder and had his first of many trips to the Priory clinic, being signed-in unconscious by Bryan Robson after a bender where he’d downed 32 whisky shots.

Rooney at 31 has become the second-richest British sportsman with an estimated wealth of £93million, while Gazza has ended up in dire straits health and money-wise.

Still, if they come from a council estate, left school early and don’t speak like Prince Harry, why not judge their destinies as all the same?