There is a rumour floating around this morning that Barcelona and/or Madrid are looking to make a massive £70m bid for Wayne Rooney. Forgetting about Real Madrid, Rooney to Barcelona is up there with Riquelme to Galway United and Valeron to our Tuesday night indoor footy in terms of moves I’d love to see happen.
From Manchester United’s point of view, selling Rooney would be the beginning of the end, that is if the end hasn’t already begun. Without him they lack anyone resembling a world-class player from midfield onwards. In short, it would signal immediate disaster for the club if they sold him.
But if United are in as much financial trouble as reported, it might just be the best thing for them to do in the long run. The Premier League is dying, its best players are heading off to Spain two-by-two. The best clubs are getting weaker by the year, and so now is the time for United to take the hit and retain a chance of still being in the mix in terms of on-field success. Selling Rooney at a time when Arsenal are selling Fabregas, Liverpool are selling Torres and Chelsea are getting older and slower would be like telling everyone you’re married to a goat at the same time others around you are professing their love for sheep. It’s never a nice thing to do, but there is a good time to do it and a bad time to do it.
Of course the “Premier” League will be all the worse for this mass exodus, but it has had it coming for a while. The flashiness of the League should not be United’s concern. Instead, they should be looking to rebuild for the future by sorting out financial woes and aiming to do business in a way that doesn’t lead you to spending £65m on Berbatov, Nani and Anderson.
From Rooney’s point of view, the move makes perfect sense. He has won everything in England bar the F.A. Cup. The quality of opposition (and teammates) is dwindling, and so new challenges will only be encountered on foreign soil. England has ceased to be the country where football is played at the highest level.
Moving to Barcelona means a chance to play with the world’s best players, and a chance to play against the world’s best players. It also means a chance to go head-to-head with one Cristiano Ronaldo. Don’t you just assume that an angry man like Wayne Rooney would love nothing more than to give his former team-mate a good kicking, metaphorically and literraly?
Footballistically, to use a Wengerism, the move makes eminent sense. He would slot right in to a position on the left of Barcelona’s front three in place of the aging Henry, where he would have both freedom of movement but also much closing down responsibility which he revels in.
Of course it would be a step up. He would go from being clearly the best player in his team to being just about in the top 5. which is never an easy pill to swallow. But given his raw talent, he would not look out of place, and would only improve.
The rumour linking him to the Catalans is probably a complete fabrication, but it is a fabrication that makes sense, and one which if it materialised would leave Manchester United and the Premier League firmly in transition, but would leave Barcelona and La Liga in its prime.
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2 comments:
It will never happen & not because United would never sell (although that's part of it) but because Rooney is so quintessentially English. I maybe doing the lad a disservice but he doesn't strike me as somebody who want's to go over and learn a new culture and language. His wife Colleen would go from a just be another fat, pale English girl in Spain and I don't think that would appeal. For this to happen Rooney would have to ask to leave and I just don't see it happening.
I can't see it happening. Rooney is one of few consistent performers on United this year. He is their bright spot, without him I think they would drop to 4th, maybe even out of top 4.
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