SOCCER:THE YEARS go by, but Wayne Rooney still has to be the embodiment of youthful promise. Although Jack Wilshere may at last be a prodigy who relieves him of that role, it is mainly the Manchester United attacker who, in theory, holds out the prospect of better times to come in the near future. Unfortunately, Rooney's significance was established most vividly when he could not galvanise England at the World Cup last year. Nobody else was able to compensate.
Wilshere, Theo Walcott and others could assume responsibility but it is Rooney, at 25, who is still taken to be the immediate solution. Any path to the shadows is closed off to him. That was clearer than ever on the eve of the friendly with Denmark in Copenhagen. A managerial alliance between club and international managers is struck readily when there is a need to insist on Rooney’s current relevance.
This conspiracy of encouragement seemed flagrant when Fabio Capello talked about his opposite number at Old Trafford. “Sir Alex told me he was really happy with Rooney’s performances this season,” said the England manager. “He suffered ankle problems but you have to know that, in terms of assists, he has had 12.”
This type of talk is sound practice for anyone hoping to sustain a player’s faith in himself.
By the same token, there was cheerleading when Rooney scored twice against Aston Villa at the start of this month, so bringing his tally in open play to three for United this season. It would be churlish to mention that only Blackburn Rovers have a worse defensive record in Premier League away fixtures than Gerard Houllier’s team. If a recovery is gathering pace, why quibble over the occasion on which it began? Allowances, too, can be made for the general inadequacy around him when United lost to Wolves on Saturday and all Rooney collected was a yellow card.
Events in his private life must have been a hindrance over the past year but football was always liable to demand that he make a treacherous transition. When Rooney had such an impact as a 16-year-old with Everton, he had a carefree trust in instinct. That could never last but a player who dominates a game with apparent effortlessness is bound to be unsettled when football turns out to be a profession rather than a place where he is utterly free.
Most factors are still in his favour. The England manager champions him with the reasonable argument that is aired regularly at Old Trafford. “If Berbatov is playing so well this season it is because Rooney has helped him a lot,” said Capello.
That is true and the Italian, in part, is employed to be an advocate for one of his players whenever he wavers. This was a period that Rooney had been virtually sure to reach.
He has a keen football brain but there was an enthrallingly intuitive approach to the game when everything looked new and adulthood was still to entangle him. This year, almost improbably, will bring the eighth anniversary of his first England goal, notched against Macedonia in Skopje. Rooney is that comparative novelty, a prodigy who has lasted the pace.
