RECORDS AND RESPECT BUT NO REWARD
Rooney will rue lack of England glory
WAYNE RooNEY will leave international football with some regrets but then they all do, don’t they? Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Rio Ferdinand and even David Beckham. England’s ‘Golden Generation’ as they were once known. That was back in 2006 prior to a World Cup in Germany that, like all the tournaments of Rooney’s time, ended in failure.
Rooney goes out with respect and some high numbers: 119 appearances and 53 goals. There is a room full of caps and opposition shirts but there are no medals. He has no major tournament final to look back on, not even a semi-final. There have been no hard-luck tales, no stories to tell.
There has, at the end of it all, been no glory.
For Rooney, all the glory came in the red of Manchester United, even though his England career promised much early on.
A goal as a 17-year-old against Macedonia was followed by two doubles at Euro 2004. Against Switzerland and then Croatia in Portugal, he looked a special player who England could build their future around. He was named in UEFA’s team of the tournament and it looked like the start of something.
But that was before he succumbed to the ravages of the English system, a domestic schedule so rigorous and unremitting that it gets them all in the end. As players such as Harry Kane and Dele Alli are viewed in the infancy of their own international careers, who is to say it won’t one day get them too?
English domestic football is not set up to benefit the England team and those who play for it. It certainly did not benefit Rooney when the big tournaments came round and his career should be looked back on through that prism.
A player whose natural instincts ensured he rarely left anything out on the pitch, United undoubtedly got the best of him. When fit, he played every minute of every week in his heyday, often slogging relentlessly up and down the field from unnatural positions that were not of his choosing.
For England, though, he often arrived on the doorstep of big tournaments on his knees. In 2006, he was recovering — not quick enough as it happened — from a broken foot. Four years later, it was an ankle problem. Before Euro 2016 in France, he suffered a knee injury.
Rooney always talked himself into good shape before a World Cup or a European Championship but too often his body relayed a more sobering truth.
Certainly, few players gave more. His desire to play in Germany 2006 threatened to bring him into direct conflict with his club manager Sir Alex Ferguson. Sven Goran Eriksson — England boss at the time — will tell you that his ears still ring from some of those conversations.
As the years have passed, the debate about Rooney’s worth has intensified. It still goes on at club level, too. At least there he has a haul of trophies to back up his argument.
Without doubt, he did not develop into the influential force on the very biggest stage that many expected.
At times, he did not help himself either. During his decade and a half at the top level, he may have taken better care of himself.
Those who pointed to his impressive physical condition when he arrived at Everton in July may have been better advised to ask why it hadn’t always been the case.
But you knew what you were getting when Rooney first played for Everton as a 16-year-old. You only had to look at him, or to talk to his club manager David Moyes, to know that. It is interesting that he says ‘no’ to England at a time when two Premier League games for Everton have reminded people of what he still has to offer. But Rooney has been around long enough to know how this England story ends. Another sleepwalk through a World Cup qualifying group and then failure in Russia next summer. Believe what you like about the nature of his discussion with England boss Gareth Southgate in recent days. Did he jump or was he pushed? But be in no doubt that this decision is the right one. For this, above all, there should be absolutely no criticism.