Does Wayne Rooney Have a Point About Man United?

By: Rob | October 20th, 2010

Rooney_Ronaldo So…third Wayne Rooney article in a row, huh. No doubt though that its still the big big story. The latest is that the soon-to-be Ex-Man United star has released a statement proclaiming that the reason he wants out is because its all about winning trophies, and Man United couldn’t give him the assurances that he wanted that they would strengthen the squad.

Now, I don’t think this is the only reason for his wanting out the door – loss of form, a seeming fall out with Sir Alex Ferguson, issues at home etc are obviously playing a part – but on this point, well, he’s sort of right isn’t he?

Look at this way, over the last few years United have sold undoubted quality (the most obvious example, of course is Ronaldo but there is also Tevez and others) and bought in players, perhaps of a lesser quality. Ok Berba is (finally) starting to come good for United, but Valencia, Owen, Bebe etc have hardly been bring-the-house-down signings.

It isn’t as if there haven’t been players on the market either – Sneijder, Benzema, Kaká, David Villa, Ibrahimovic, Ozil etc have moved clubs in the last couple of years, and players like Ribery looked to. With United apparently 80m better off after Ronaldo might have been in for some of them.

Add to that the ageing of the squad in general – Giggs and Scholes really can’t have too much longer left however long we’ve been saying that, and now Rio is begining to get on the wrong side of injuries and things – and you can’t help but wonder why United aren’t investing in the World’s great and good.

Of course there are other issues at work here, and it’d be foolish to ignore them. Firstly, the obvious elephant in the room – the Glazers. United might have got 80m for Ronaldo, but Fergie likely didn’t see that much of it as spendable. It isn’t necessarily
Sir Alex’s fault then, but Rooney’s woes would perhaps be justified if this was the case.

Of course the free spending nature of Manchester City has meant United buying a certain quality player has disappeared. Whereas a player like Michael Carrick could be plucked from a decent Premier League team, comparable talents – James Milner, Gareth Barry have gone to Man City.

There is also the issue of Tax. Its pretty high for high earners (as it ought to be) in the UK, and footballers are no doubt more attracted to Spain, where they will earn more of their actual wage.

Nevertheless, Rooney’s outburst shows one thing – if the Glazers don’t start putting serious money in the pot and if United don’t start seriously trying to attact the World’s best, then we may see the club fade as a genuine force. With Rooney gone, and with that ageing squad, if the Rooney money doesn’t get reinvested well, the club is in trouble.

Rooney might not have handled this whole thing brilliantly, and it obviously has been prompted by other forces, but nonetheless, United’s transfer policy does need a bit of looking at, or they will fade away, which is exactly what Rooney doesn’t want.

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Category: Manchester United

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Does Wayne Rooney Have a Point About Man United?

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