Get to the Back of the Class, Rooney
Rooney swearing at someone, again.
What a fantastic weekend for sport. England pounded the Scots in the Six Nations, my local team, Northampton Town FC, trounced Stockport 4-0 and Man Utd suffered yet another horrendous couple of days in their fight to retain the Premier League title.
My girlfriend always asks why I detest Man Utd so much and has always cited their success as a reason for my hatred of the club. This simply isn’t the case. What I – and no doubt countless others – dislike about them is the underlying arrogance that permeates every surface of their being. Now, that might sound a little dramatic, but take a moment to consider their many past signings who have very quickly adopted the ‘Utd arrogance’. Nani and Anderson are two prime examples. Two unknown footballers (I don’t care about their past credentials, I’d never heard of either and I follow football closely). Now that they both wear the AIG shirt, they strut around the pitch like they possess a god-given talent for the game. They don’t. Both are utterly average, as is Ronaldo (who has taken the level of arrogance to a whole new dimension).
Back to this weekend, though, and the sight of Rooney’s pasty moon-like face contorted with anger was a sight to behold, if not a particularly pleasant one. Quite rightly dismissed for a childish display of dissent, he dragged his knuckles off the field spitting his usual array of expletives before completing the pantomime with a rousing punch of the corner flag, in full view of two members of the constabulary. Brilliant. It certainly capped off a fantastic weekend.
What a child, though. How can he expect us to hold any respect for him as an England player? As we know from the Ronaldo/Real scandal, Utd fans are about as fickle as they come and I therefore doubt his actions on Saturday will dent their undying love for him, but as an England fan I simply don’t want a bad-tempered little child playing for us. Look at the greats – Pele, Gazza, Moore, Van Basten, Lineker; none of them possess Rooney’s temperament and as a result were greatly respected by football fans worldwide. There’s nothing wrong with being arrogant if you want to be a successful sportsman – look at Ali – but there is a line and Rooney, along with the majority of his team mates, appear to be suffering from a massive, collective, over-inflated ego. Saturday was embarrassing for all Utd fans. I just hope they take their red blinkers off and discover the deep mess their team is in.
