Rooney will no longer be untouchable
WAYNE ROONEY will soon find out whether he is to be England skipper under Sam Allardyce.
The new manager has prevaricated on the issue of the captaincy in the weeks since he was appointed.
He’s said that he’ll reveal his choice when the players report to St George’s Park tomorrow ahead of the World Cup qualifier against Slovakia next Sunday.
The chances are that Rooney will be Allardyce’s choice, as he was Roy Hodgson’s.
The difference will be that the captaincy won’t guarantee a start for Rooney under Allardyce in the way that it did when Hodgson was in charge.
Hodgson always used to say that Rooney had no special privileges. The Manchester United man would only be in the line-up if he proved himself to be better than his challengers.
Patently that wasn’t always the case. There was a feeling that Hodgson would find room for Rooney irrespective of his form or the form of others.
That reached a ridiculous conclusion when Rooney was shoehorned into the team in France as a deeplying midfield player.
Hodgson gave Rooney the armband after the 2014 World Cup when Steven Gerrard retired.
It was an obvious choice, given that he was, by far, the most-experienced outfield player.
And it’s fair to say Rooney has performed many of the functions of captaincy outstandingly well, particularly in his dealings with the media.
But there was always a suspicion that he wasn’t a great on-field leader like Gerrard or Terry.
That was shown in the second half against Iceland when the team went into collective meltdown and Rooney’s response was to have probably his worst ever 45 minutes in an England shirt.
Allardyce’s problem is that at the moment – barring a shock recall for Terry when the squad is named this evening – there isn’t really an alternative.
Of the 23 who went to the Euros, the only other regular club skipper is Liverpool’s Jordan Henderson.
But if Big Sam confirms Rooney as his captain, you can be certain that he will not feel the same obligation that Hodgson did to pick him no matter what.
Allardyce has said that where he plays Rooney will be dictated by where he plays for United. And Jose Mourinho says that will be either as a No. 9 or a No. 10.
For England, that puts him up against Harry Kane, Jamie Vardy, Daniel Sturridge and Dele Alli.
If they are all playing well at club level, and Rooney isn’t, the armband won’t mean much.