No matter how much Wayne Rooney achieves in his amazing career it seems that the English obsession with ‘loving to hate’ is never far away from the Manchester United captain.
Because, looking at some of the responses to Rooney’s red card at the weekend, you might assume that Wazza had punched the ref square in the face, before baring his family jewels to the horrified crowd as he left the field.
The Guardian wasn’t too ruthless but still exaggerated:
Rooney really ought to have grown out of the sort of moments that led to him being shown a straight red card on the hour for a wild kick from behind on Stewart Downing and he was fortunate that West Ham did not take advantage
The Independent went further:
What strange alchemy is at work when sane, sensible men continue to excuse Wayne Rooney from responsibility for his folly?
As usual, we got a measure of sanity from Martin Samuel who stated that the media response to the red card was typically harsh.
The tackle was wild, unnecessary and stupid. But so was the reaction. It often is where Wayne Rooney is concerned.
Barring serious injury Rooney will become the all time record goalscorer for Manchester United and England in the next couple of years. The last time he was sent of for United was in 2009 – 5 whole years ago. How can someone with that sort of consistency and effectiveness still be presented as such a loose cannon? Some kind of psycho who constantly struggles to keep his violent instincts in check.
The truth about the red card is completely different. It wasn’t malicious and Rooney certainly wasn’t trying to hurt Downing. If anything it was a slightly lazy version of the professional foul that you will see most weeks in the Premier League – a foul that usually only merits a cursory mention.
Rooney was preparing to take a yellow card for the team with only two defenders between Downing and the goal. It was a badly executed tackle and if United had gone on to drop more points it would have proved costly. But United won and who’s to say that it wasn’t BECAUSE of Rooney’s intervention?
Juan Mata can now take over from Rooney for the next three Manchester United games. In reality Rooney may only be seriously missed in the Chelsea game where his grit and determination would have been called on to see Manchester United through. Mata doesn’t have the power of influence of United’s talisman, but he’s not a bad replacement.
But it never ceases to amaze how much criticism Rooney gets every time he does something wrong on the field of play. Thankfully it seems as if the player himself has accepted this as part and parcel of being England and Manchester United captain. He’d be well-advised to pay little to no attention to the areas of the football press who seem desperate for him to fail.
