₦airaland Forum

ROONEY'S DAYS AS A TOP STRIKER ARE OVER

PERHAPS it may read like the most cheap, forlorn search for a punchline to his portly past to portray Wayne Rooney as Louis Van Gaal’s elephant in the room.

Yet even if the Manchester United captain were to grow tusks, change his name by deed-poll to Nelly, and hose Van Gaal with spray from his trunk, there could hardly be a metaphorical idiom more appropriate to his diminished self.

Or to depict the sustained attempts to gloss over Rooney’s precipitous fall from paradise, the desperate lunges to which the ex-players’ union will resort to ignore a truth that is now as self-evident as his resurrected hairline.

Van Gaal presents himself as a fearless brigadier, yet with his field-marshal he appears meek, enslaved by ancient reputation.

If the manager was serious about making a bold declaration, if he genuinely wished to seize momentum from Manchester City, he would evict the player who decorated this fixture with a moment of authentic genius in 2011.

Some 56 months on it would be the Dutchman delivering the unforgettable bicycle kick, one that would propel the waning, shrunken giant of yesteryear to the very margins of United’s season.

There is a reluctance, a fundamental delusion, a dishonesty in the refusal to declare Wayne’s enfeeblement as anything other than some momentary blip, like the temporary loss of pictures from a live television broadcast.

In fact, the days of high definition are over, the rights to the glory days are lost: Infrequent, underwhelming flickers side, Rooney is now a blank screen.

The truth – that he has exhausted all but the remnants of his stardust, become an obstacle to progress under Van Gaal, that the reel is run – is avoided, even when the verbal detour carries the narrator into the territory of farce.

This clumsy hike up the Matterhorn of absurdity is one Paul Scholes, Rio Ferdinand and Owen Hargreaves rather foolishly undertook this week as Rooney’s downgrade continued apace in Moscow.

Their consensus was their former team-mate - £250,000-per-week, captain of club and country – was “undervalued”, that he remained the “most important” player at Old Trafford, the leader around whom United must rebuild.

Comical Ali, were he still spinning fantastic fairy tales of Saddam’s great glories, would have immediately recognised fellow shameless weavers of the outrageous and seconded the trio to the Iraqi propaganda ministry.

By the end, the BT Sport’s Champions League comedy club had stretched the borders of credibility to those distant, one-eyed territories where they could legitimately have nominated Steve Coppell for this year’s Ballon d’Or.

Rooney, his powers eroded by the onslaught of the years down to a powdery nothing, has become an evident hindrance to progress.

He has not scored in the Champions League proper for two years. Last week’s goal at Everton was his first in the Premier League away from home for 11 months.

There are box-sets shorter than his Sahara-like dry spells which have reduced his 2015/16 vital statistics to a pitiful league goal every six hours.

His pace has gone: Stripped of the old certainties, a player who was for so long a triumph of touch and technique has become clumsy, helpless.

Rooney – who turned 30 yesterday but seems so much more antique - has been reduced to a lavishly rewarded bystander.

That his career returns are otherworldly – he is on the shirttails of Bobby Charlton’s all time United scoring record – is as indisputable as it is insignificant.

Those figures were compiled by a player who no longer exists: Lester Piggott is the greatest of all flat jockeys, the emperor of Epsom, but that doesn’t mean Coolmore would prefer this titan of the past to Ryan Moore next June.

Time is the river that flows forever on without pity or sentiment.

Rooney may continue to scalp non-entities like Bruges, he will likely overhaul Charlton by feasting on minnows; on the bigger days, perhaps even today, there may yet be one or two last powerful stings of the dying wasp.

But Manchester United cannot, will not, be restored as a major force with this shadow of a lost past as their lead striker.

In 2010 and 2012, at the peak of his powers, Rooney harvested an impressive seasonal return of 26 and 27 league goals. In the three years since the field has turned fallow, respective returns falling to 12, 17 and 12.

These are not remotely world class numbers.

A mitigating argument about his midfield or wing deployment can be made, yet Messi and Ronaldo – equivalent leaders on teams with which United wish to compete – deliver an abundance no matter their nominal position.

The frequently lampooned Olivier Giroud outscored Rooney last season.

Against United’s apparent peers, the gap became ever more stark. The Englishman’s return was less than half of Sergio Aguero. Diego Costa’s goals per game return was twice as good.

And the graph, like a doomed aircraft, is only moving in one downward spiral. The very opposite to the thesis presented by BT’s United old boys club appears true: Rooney is overvalued.

Rewarded as a superstar, feted as a giant of the game, while performing like a beaten docket, a player futilely grasping for old glories.

United plainly need a new figurehead. They may hand the baton to Anthony Martial. They will continue to drill for superstars, hoping that they might eventually strike Neymar, Bale, Lewandoski, Muller or the return of Cristiano.

If they are again to dine at the top table, to again look across Manchester without a sense of inferiority, this is the only choice.

The Rooney issue is mammoth, elephantine, yet Ferdinand, Scholes and Hargreaves choose to see no evil, hear no evil.

Their tactic – before, during and after another Rooney masterclass in accelerating decline on Wednesday - was to ignore or deflect; to hide behind a narrative that is built on bluster, on ancient numbers.

To contradict one of nature’s laws: The one that says that elephants run terrified from mice; this time it was BT’s timid rodents charging away from the mammoth creature standing broken in front of them.

finally, the journos are waking up!

tess1:
After all, we are not alone on Rooney's case.

Somebody posted something about English commentators on Rooney. And responses are.............

playing rooney is like attempting to have sex without a pënis. you keep thrusting but nothing is going on.

the media/journos are now waking up. i heard they bombarded LVG with questions in the post-match conference concerning rooney's poor form.......LVG dodged the question as usual.

i just saw an article now where a journo tore rooney to shreds.

SIRcumalot:
.
Unless rooney start scoring own goals for the next five matches he won't be dropped.
Concerning the 25 goals maybe just 20goals now.

if he persists with such shïtty performances, it is only a matter of time before he gets dropped. for a manager like LVG that is obsessed with possession, it's baffling how he tolerates a dispossession machine known as wayne rooney.

SIRcumalot:
Martial take on was that high because he mainly faced Sagna and whichever help defender city throws at him if he played as a CF otamendi and kompany go be like him 2nd skin.
My point is simple.
Martial would've done better than rooney but considering our lack of attacking option martial has to continue playing from that position until young is fit or Memphis shows some promise.

why not just drop rooney & play memphis on the left? move martial back as CF & let mata/herrera work their spanish flavour.....

the odd man out now in the team is rooney. i am quite sure you still think he will score 25 league goals per season.

AdeLaNa1:
Good question. Elampiro abeg i await thy answer!!

anyone who says he prefers rooney to martial as a CF is a lunatic. martial would have kompany/otamendi ragged today. one of the reasons mata/herrera didn't have a good game was because rooney wasn't running the channels to create the space for the creators to operate.

martial would have stretched city's defence further back. no centre back likes a player running at them at full speed apart from smalling who completely destroyed walcott in the 2nd half against arsenal. even when rooney wasn't this horrible, he was mostly kompany's bïtch.

there's no moral justification for LVG to play rooney. he has consistently been the worst player in our squad this season. the front four of martial, mata, memphis & herrera would have suited us better particularly towards the end of the game.......if it's true rooney has a "must play" clause in his contract then LVG's hands are tied!

everyone in the defence was good today & it was rojo that impressed me the most. he played exactly like gabriel heinze used to play for us.....

the only issue we had today was rooney. against a team that was missing 2 of their best players, we should have taken all the 3 points.

rooney was uber-useless!

rooney
90 mins played
55% pass accuracy
0 shots on target
0 chances created
0 take ons

GBR1:
I don't think we'll ever see Valencia as a forward winger. Dude has lost it completely as an attacker. Playing him there would be counterproductive especially with Darmian who doesn't offer too much going forward.

LVG just wants consistency.....
we played over so well @goodison & he's sticking to the team that did that damage. no darmian, depay & blind. it's not like blind & darmian have put a foot wrong this season.

Kimoni:
You are an arsehole who will never amount to anything ever in this life. Whose bidding are you actually obeying? The fools you call NL aunties or what? Why can't they face me themselves?

You are the most unintelligent teenager I have ever come across. Who exactly do you think you are fooling?

Do you see your self confession some months back? Can you see why you will never amount to anything in life?

you don't need to curse him.
he's already cursed! someone who cannot even get into any naija uni but yet trolls the cyberspace - doesn't that already tell you he's an unrepentant failure?

abeg, ignore the imbëcile!

Timbuktou:
Nna, someone just told me that offline . I almost knocked myself on the head for quoting shim.

shim needs to get a job.

Timbuktou:
Francesca, sorry for quoting you in the first place. I didn't known it was you. Please carry on.

so laide4 is francistony again?
no wonder he cannot overcome the simple task of gaining admission into a nigerian university. he spends 90% of his day creating alternate monikers.

nyabinghi:
Remember what Rooney did for England as a Rookie in Euro 2004, Remember the Queen wept when Rooney broke his metatarsal before Germany 2006.

rooney's england never played in the semis.
shearer's england played in the semis.

there's a difference between sleep & death. shearer is the better goal scorer. rooney is a fraud & a liability.

LordReed:
Your grass addled brain won't let you think would it? The laws are not available to be read online again abi? Paper coogar.

unfortunately, you put the cart before the horse. next time, read the laws online. cover all grounds before coming to a public forum to expose your ignorance.

nyabinghi:
Shearer played with kluivert, Bellamy, Les ferdinand, Solano et al yet, he couldnt win anything with them, what a shame. If not for penalties, shearer wont be better than yakubu ayegbeni.

buhahaha - kluivert that was close to retirement when he joined newcastle. rooney also played with falcao & it was during this period rooney scored only 1 miserable away goal in the premier league in 14 months.

funlord:

Well shearer had the chance to play with world class players didn't he? but chose to remain a big fish in a small pond probably because he could not handle the "truth that is man united"! Fergie tried everything in order to sign him up but the fear of dealing with the sort of pressure @ a major club such as manchester got to shearer I guess!
Anyway as a pure goal getter, "1993 to 2006 shearer" trumps "rooney" all day everyday even during childrens day, but as a complete footballer, all round play, technique, chance creation, passing, influence etc, I would give it to "2004 to 2012 rooney"! Shearer could not really dribble or make key passes to others as much as rooney does and only finished off chances with headers or shots, rooney had it all in his locker @ 1 point!
So IMO! Better goal scorer would be big man shearer, but better all round football player would be rooney! Who would you rather have as a team mate? That's a whole noda cup of p.g tips!

compare what shearer did for england to what rooney did. go and watch euro 96 again.....

LordReed:
As I said before report me to the mods because I won't keep quiet. I will challenge any idea I do not agree with and no amount of vaunted boasting will change that. Predator my ass.

how can you challenge what you don't agree with when you have already admitted you are ignorant of the law?

nyabinghi:
Shearer stayed in the box all his life Rooney didnt. Shearer can only wish he was wazza. Remove their penalties and recalculate.

i removed their penalties as instructed by you & shearer shat hot steamy faeces on rooney. whether you add the pens or not, shearer is better than rooney.

shearer was never a lone striker....he's had to share the goalscoring roles with sutton, les ferdinand, alan smith, etc all his life. rooney had ronaldo, tevez, ruud, etc as help mates. it's a shame rooney doesn't have 300PL goals today.

LordReed:
Unlike you I am not afraid to say I do not know about something. If you think admitting ignorance and seeking more information is bad then you are the biggest of ignoramuses.

there you go again with your single digit IQ. when you don't know about something, you listen more and type less. learn from those who know and keep quiet.

you assumed the role of a raconteur when it's clear as daylight you aren't even clued up on the subject we are discussing. many people don't know like you but they are in the background learning.

however, in your bid to "save-a-hoe", you have offered yourself as a sacrificial lamb to a predator like coogar. i have even lost appetite to eat you any further. if i am going to devour a prey, i'd rather it's a smart prey. i am scared your flesh could infect me with your cluelessness.

Torment yourself, I am not moved by your words.

this is you right now.....NL's one & only captain "save-a-hoe".

https://gifgifs.com/res/1015/560d71053bae3362728486.gif

nyabinghi:
shearer scored 58 penalties, coogar lets remove the penalties scored by Rooney and shearer and compare their minutes and goal to match ratios. Did shearer play any oter role than sit in front of the box.

shearer for soton 23 in 118 vs wazza for everton 15 in 67 0.195 for shearer vs. 0.224 for wazza(a teenage Rooney outscores an experienced shearer)

1996–2006 Newcastle United 303 (148) shearer scored an average of 14.8 goals per year for newcastle(pure fraud as an all out striker)

Shearer's real form was for Blackburn 112 in 138. Shearer is inferior to Rooney in all aspects. Remove the penalties and shearer is shyte.

don't play with fire.....
shearer is heads & shoulders better than rooney at everything. where they played bears no relevance otherwise rooney should have more career goals than ronaldo.

now, let's do some math!

shearer
260 PL goals
441 PL appearances
38,173 PL minutes
53 PL penalty goals.

minute per open play goal ratio =

38,173/207 = 184mins/goal

rooney
187 PL goals
415 PL appearances
32,440 PL minutes
18 PL penalty goals.

minute per open play goal ratio =

32,440/169 = 192 mins/goal.
__________________________

despite the fact that shearer played for crappy teams for most of his career, he was quicker to score a PL goal than rooney that actually played mostly with world class players, world class manager, the most successful club in britain.

nyabinghi......shearer>>>>>>>>rooney!

LordReed:
My very first post on this topic showed my ignorance of the law so your addled brain should look again to see which existence it destoyed.

there's no excuse of ignorance in law.....
if you are this old & yet you are clueless on issues like the constitution of your own country then your entire formal education is a waste of resources. your sponsors should have used the funds in cocoa business. then again, if you are ignorant of the law, what the fück are you doing on a thread that is intellectually out of your league?

hmmmm-----in your bid to "save-a-hoe", you wandered into a territory where your types don't belong. you are a prey in this habitat, go home and re-educate yourself. stop jumping at any thread that puts men against women. they don't need your help. the women can fight for themselves.

I have told you to report to the mods if it so pains you. For someone who wants to see the law unchanged you seem to be eager to see some action, effects of your grass dulled brain?

which yeye action?
i am playing your words back to you. if you can make close to 30 comments over a miserable 1 year punishment, you should burn few courthouses for a 14-year punishment, isn't it?

you don enter trouble today. i'm going to torment you till your nose bleeds.

LordReed:
Whether it is enforced or not has no bearing on its status as discriminatory, your frail grass addled brain can not grasp that simple concept can it?

the same frail grass addled brain destroyed your entire existence in one swift move. the grass addled brain undressed you in public & it exposed your cluelessness when it comes to your country's constitution! if anything, my brain commingles brilliance with wits.

As though the only issue being discussed is this one, coogar go and sleep your brain is tired from all the grass you had to chomp on today.

oh shut it, will you?
you have rambled the entire day with a stultifying dullness over a little difference. i have given you a scenario where the woman does not even get punished whilst the man gets 14 years.......i expect you to carry a placard tomorrow and protest against this injustice.

captain "save-a-hoe" - the floor is yours.

LordReed:
The grass you ate must be addling your brain because you keep bring up strawmen. Are we discussing whether law is enforced or not?

of what essence is your argument if the law isn't even enforced? what's wrong with captain save-a-hoe? are you high on sticky ovulates this evening?

Report me to the mods, take an anti-nausea pill and go to bed since the grass you've been eating is making you frail in the head.

i'd rather you report yourself, mate!

Up to 2 years ago I would have argued vehemently against the idea that man can be raped by a woman, the idea is only just catching on but everywhere the awareness is rising that change must occur and definitions of rape must include the fact that this happens and needs to be codified in law.

your argument or lack of it has no relevance. a woman cannot rapë a man because she does not possess a pënis - point, blank, period!

you have made about 30 comments on this thread because of a difference of an extra year punishment attached in the case of when a man is assaulted

i have given you a scenario where men get punished for 14 years & women walk away freely for the same crime - you can have the floor now to make more than 400 comments to bleat away on the discrimination against men by the nigerian constitution.

captain lord "save-a-hoe" reed......the floor is yours.

madam tng, how are you?
i hope hazard is making your weekend pleasurable.
__________________________

i am surprised ibime hasn't blamed emenalo for today's loss.

LordReed:
You must be the goat here 'cos the only bleating I hear is from you. A judge is advised by law to give a lighter sentence to a perp in the case where the assault is against a woman than if the assault was against a man and you say this is not discrimination, you must be high on all the grass you've been eating.

nah - you are the donkey braying after being repeatedly told that the execution of the law is the single most important factor, not necessarily what is written in text. 3 years, 2 years.....it bears no relevance in the grand scheme of things as the law is rarely enforced in nigeria!

Conceded

if you have conceded, please get out of this thread. your captain save-a-hoe antic is starting to make me feel nauseous!

however I must ask would you rather see the status quo remain or you'd rather a change?

i would rather see it remain.
what men seem to lose in this part of the constitution, they gain it elsewhere in the constitution.

and don't make it look like the nigerian legislators are clueless. till today, a woman cannot rapë a man in britain as well.

LordReed:
Who wrote that is automatic? What a strawman argument. We all know the code is a guide but why is the perp assaulting a woman given a lighter sentence as maximum? Can you answer that and stop boxing shadows.

if it's not automatic then why are you bleating about discrimination?

Please what does this clause mean:

352. Any person who assaults another with intent to have carnal knowledge of him or her against the order of nature is guilty of a felony, and is liable to imprisonment for fourteen years.

male on male rapë - 14 years sentence
male on female rapë - 14 years sentence

352 was not talking about a female räping a male, it's actually baffling that you dunno the constitution of your own country.

Section 357 of the Criminal Code Act, CAP 77, LFN 1990 defines rape thus:

“any person who has unlawful carnal knowledge of a woman or girl, without her consent, or with her consent, if the consent is obtained by force or by means of false threats or intimidation of any kind, or by fear of harm, or by means of false or fraudulent representation as to the nature of the act, or in case of a married woman, by impersonating her husband is guilty of an offence called rape”.

from the above provision, it becomes quite glaring that under the nigerian law, only a man is capable of committing the crime of rape. section 357 of criminal code clearly states that;

“…any person who has unlawful carnal knowledge of a woman or girl …”

surprise surprise....

airfart has done another disappearing act.....

funlord:


Trust the boys @ sky! I think dey just created this lop sided goal ranking just to make rooney feel loved and hyped in equal measure on his birthday!

If you notice they conveniently only included goals by the listed strikers from the "92 season" when the premiership began and ended it by the "certain age of 30" which automatically helps wazza jump the queue! They glady wanted to steer clear of the career league goals stats by all means!

Don't shoot the messenger, go kill sky instead!

i won't be surprised that 10% of rooney's weekly wage goes to skysports pundits. the arsë-licking is tenacious.

funlord:

Number of #BPL goals by great premier league strikers by their 30th birthday;

187 - ROONEY
176 - Shearer
174 - Henry
152 - Fowler
146 - Owen

these stats are fraudulent! shearer & henry scored career league goals before the premier league was established. there was a football league before 92/93.

number of career league goals by their 30th birthday

199 - shearer
197 - henry
187 - rooney

if we were to follow the logic in your stats then rooney is greater than messi. how come? rooney has scored 187BPL goals more than messi.

LordReed:
Here are the clauses:

353. Any person who unlawfully and indecently assaults any male person is guilty of a felony, and is liable to imprisonment for three years. The offender cannot be arrested without warrant.

360. Any person who unlawfully and indecently assaults a woman or girl is guilty of a misdemeanour, and is liable to imprisonment for two years.

If giving women lighter sentence is discriminatory then what do you call this?

there's no discrimination in what you typed above because no one ever gets the maximum sentence in the court of law.

the maximum sentence anyone gets for assaulting a male is 3 years. this does not mean everyone who assaults a male gets 3 years. liable to get 3 years does not mean he will automatically get the 3 years. don't be surprised if he gets 6 months or even a community service.

what is written in the constitution is completely different to how it's executed. how many people even get sentenced to prison for assault in nigeria? if someone slaps you today, the police would record it as 2 fighting.......the matter would be settled at the police station and the rest is history.

furthermore, if a man were to beat his wife or if a wife beats her husband.....the police would ask the couple to call on the family elders to settle the matter amicably as they don't get involved in husband/wife matter. discrimination my foot - how come men don't complain about discrimination when there's no provision in our constitution concerning men räped by women?

sheesh!

did hidden hazard score today?

codedguy1:
Guy calm down!

Even Rooney did not expect that his present disgraceful performances will linger this long. We might have seen that Rooney was declining why did those that agreed the deal not see it. If Moyes, Rooney and his agent were pushing for a 300k per wk wages for Rooney, woodward and the management should have refused.

he was still a decent player in 12/13 when we won the league. he offered a reasonable excuse that if he had played as an arrow head that season, he would have scored plenty of goals. there's credibility in that excuse cos he scored 34 goals the previous season(11/12)

If rooney is a fraud, woodward and the rest management are otondos.
We are talking about Rooneys recent form juxtaposed with his performances on the field, I agree its a wankfest.

moyes gave him the contract in 13/14, about 6 months after SAF left. RVP was still leading the attack & rooney was playing behind him. his piss-poor performance back then was excused that he was playing out of his preferred position.

rooney must have known of his own decline.

funlord:

His "RECENT FORM" as you mildly put it has been going on for close to 3 years!

thank you, my brother!

YourCoffin:
Exactly. To the best of my knowledge, Nigerian constitution doesn't portray any discrimination against any group, sex or race. Discrimination is witnessed only in it's application and that's where the writer should have focused on, not embarking on a malicious campaign to mis-represent the constitution.

the writer is obviously trying to be captain save-a-hoe! his point of view is a disgrace.

babygirlfl:
See my post above. It has been tested in court. A Nigerian woman could not confer citizenship on her foreign husband.

not quite.....
we dunno the details of the case. vayola sears herself doesn't sound nigerian.....even if she were to be, there's a due process to be followed before conferring citizenship on a foreign husband.

•she has to marry him
•the husband has to stay in nigeria for x years
•the husband must be of a good conduct
•etcetera etcetera.

how are we sure all these conditions were met? there has to be a cogent reason for her case to be thrown out. the fact that the writer didn't mention what really happened is suspicious.

Stillfire:
Arggh when did I blame men?
The example was to show how we are socialized differently. And how women need to be aware of these nuances that actually restrict them. Awon 'submissive spirit' things.

what are these nuances?

Nobody cites gender discrimination for pay differences any more, no need repeating it on every thread . I think it was forbes article that carried it and it was women that found that out themselves. This even helps my example on that modesty trait where they don't want to offend the other person so you price yourself lower than your worth.

hmmmmm!
food for thought...

You want to see those traits every now and then? Lol, not 'every now and then' but every darn time.

ok....
we wanna see it every darn time.