So Louis van Gaal used the game against Valencia to inform the public that Wayne Rooney will be the next Manchester United captain. He said:
I have been very impressed by his professionalism and his attitude to training and to my philosophy. He is a great inspiration to the younger members of the team and I believe he will put his heart and soul into his captaincy role.
There had been a strong suggestion that the Dutchman would give the captaincy to Robin van Persie. But Wayne Rooney has climbed his way up the ranks at Manchester United for over a decade to become the talisman. So it would seem very unfair not to give him the armband that he so covets, as far as we are concerned.
There has reportedly been something of a backlash on twitter, according to some sections of the media.
The gripe with some Manchester United fans is that Rooney has seemingly wanted to leave the club twice during his career. This supposedly represents a lack of loyalty.
But, during a 15 year career there are bound to be ups and downs. Rooney isn’t a Mancunian so United is his adopted home anyway. And we always felt that his desire to leave Manchester United was based mainly on concerns about the quality of the squad and not money.
I mean, wherever Rooney plays he’s going to get the same sort of wage, so the idea that he would ask for a leave simply to get more cash seems far-fetched – risking the eternal wrath of your own fans just for a pay hike? No.
Rooney is a natural born winner. He wants to win trophies every year and that’s one of the main reasons why Manchester United have been successful. We think that he should be applauded for rocking the boat when he thinks that standards are slipping. Manchester United need to raise the bar again at present, rather than get into some comfort zone. It’s those fearless qualities that will make Rooney such a good captain. A Keano-esque leader on and off the pitch.
Rooney keeps everyone at the club on their toes and we think that LVG has made yet another great decision here.
At 28 he’s at his peak and the captaincy should mean that he sees out his career in a Manchester United team which would be immeasurably worse without him.
Let’s see some of his best moments. Manchester United fans: good decision?
barry
Aug 14, 2014 at 5:06 pm
Van gaal full of bad decisions. Rooney captain ( come on how many times has he wanted to leave, his private life a joke no a good role model). Then there’s the mass exodus of players who have not left yet but have all received shirt numbers. And the millions we will spend on players. What a joke we are going to be again