AUTHOR: – Bricki
After a genuinely superb game Saturday, with everything you could ask for in a match bar a red card (Vidic tried his best to make that happen), we are left to reflect on a choice few words provided by Wayne Rooney on the completion of his Hat-Trick.
I’m not going to get into what he said, you’ve all heard it and the endless repeats and commentary on Sky/BBC/TalkSport will no doubt inform you. I don’t intend to defend Rooney as it was an ill advised moment, although why the cameraman decides to get so close to the players is slightly strange.
I want to have a look and reflect on Rooney and the actions/decisions of the last 12 months when his career has taken a bit of a different path.
This point last year Rooney had been on fire and was having the most effective season in front of goal of his professional career. Following Ronaldo’s departure to Real Madrid and Tevez to the other side of Manchester it was all about Rooney, the kind of situation the ‘big’ player loves. He was reveling in being the ‘Superstar’ on the pitch and was almost single handedly propelling United forward in the title race.
In the same period he was staying largely out of the public eye in terms of controversy and also had his first born son to occupy him. It seemed like Rooney was ‘growing up’ and starting to become the player many expected, with this
his form and performances were being pushed as a reason England would be contenders in South Africa at the World Cup.
Then the ankle injury in Munich occurred, he was rushed back for the second leg and it all went downhill from there.
- Out of the Champions League
- Overhauled in the Title Chase
- Poor World Cup and the ‘comment to the camera’ after Algeria
- Tabloid Scandal
We came into the new season hoping to see the Rooney of the previous campaign before his Munich nightmare but it seemed the scars (Physical and Mental) of the previous season and summer were still there. An interesting way to look at this is to try and see how Rooney himself will have approached the new season.
Up until the injury against Bayern Munich, Rooney was playing perhaps the most consistent, sharp and successful football of his career. Essentially he was ‘In the Zone’ – that special place that athletes talk about but what does it mean?
Various studies conducted in this area have come to the conclusion that when athletes are in the ‘zone’ everything is second nature. Players operate on instinct and know exactly what they are going to do before they even know themselves. As if something from the Matrix, the world slows down and then everything goes ‘ninja’. Like the ‘Force’ the player has complete control and influence on his ability and surroundings, this is the way Rooney will have felt up until that fateful night in Munich.
Imagine you are Rooney and all that is swept away from you in one tackle, how do you feel? You remove the thing that is getting you praise and what’s left? It’s a hell of a blow for a person to take who was being told that anything his club or nation could achieve rested largely on his/her shoulders.
How do you deal with that? Who’s to blame? Why You?
Now imagine you are a person who has not been denied a single thing from a young age and all the breaks have gone your way. For the average man on the street its a big blow but I’d argue you’d taken setbacks in your life before and you would balance it out in someway. For someone of Rooney’s development from 15/16 years of age, having everything you want exactly when you want it and being treated like a ‘God’ by many in the game and fans alike its a crippling realisation of being ‘human’. All the previous praise he has received in his career can essentially come back to haunt him, all the comments about being ‘world class’ will play on his mind and ego.
The ‘ego’ of Wayne Rooney is something we can talk all day about. Rooney’s ego will have developed as he’s gotten older and won more titles/awards – it is natural that any successful player would have an ego in some shape or form. The management and control of the ego however can be what defines the player and governs future successes in the game.
Rooney has always been an aggressive player, in essence the original sort of ‘street’ footballer, unyielding, uncompromising and ‘hardcore’. The sort of player you see on many Sunday league pitches, work ethic, team ethic and at the spine/heart of the team. The big difference between those players and Rooney though is his ability, this has allowed him to rise through the football world at a stunning pace and be a huge star and ‘personality’ by the age of 18.
At 18 this ‘lad’ has signed for one of the biggest clubs in the world, seen as the bright new hope and exposed to a world previously hidden over the horizon in terms of exposure, fame and fortune. How do you adjust to that change?
Just when you start to accept your new place in life, the ‘rewards’ and ‘praise’ for doing something you have just loved doing from childhood, it becomes a ‘job’ rather than a ‘game’. In all the money, media coverage and emotions, football is still just a game and played for pleasure whatever level it is at. Since that injury in Munich what joy has Rooney had in the game? Failure of United to win the League or European Cup? United missed Rooney. England’s failure at the World Cup? An ‘out of form’ Rooney. United failing to hit the heights in their play this season? Where’s the ‘real’ Rooney.
All that is not even taking into account the off field stories that occurred, but again a person who hasn’t heard the word ‘no’ in their adolescent development can start to believe that they can do anything they want. That is not to justify what he did but merely to show some of the thought process that may go on in his head, ‘I’m Wayne Rooney, I’ll do what i want.’
After the injuries and failure of the England team at the World Cup what was the public perception of Rooney? A failure, overated, ‘past it’ already, in the public eye Rooney is not revered as he once was and this can impact his own self worth. How do you find your true worth to someone? The transfer request saga and links to Manchester City is akin to a schoolgirl pitting two boys against each other in order to find out who likes her better and get as much as she can.
The result of the transfer request saga was a new improved contract and Man United expressing his absolute importance to the club and its future. In Rooney’s mind that’s his ego massaged again and the reinforcement of the fact he’s a ‘great’ player.
However this would only be a reinforcement of his belief and it would take performances on the pitch to fully cement this back into his mindset. The overhead kick against Manchester City and then other goals/performances started the process but the hat trick against West Ham was the confirmation the Rooney of ‘old’ was back.
In that one moment after he hit the penalty, everything in the past 12 months evaporated away and Rooney was back to the player before the injury. As he looked into the camera he may have seen all the negative press, comments and opinions of the previous year. He may have seen the Rooney that occurred during that time and what was his response to all that? The words that followed were a release of 12 months of knowing an injury had not allowed him to be his best and ramming the comments of those people back down their throats. He probably saw his own reflection and was casting off the Rooney of the previous year, telling him that this is his life again.
Rooney’s choice of celebration recently has been head up, arms outstretched, saying here i am, love me, adore me.
The fact that he has chosen to celebrate in this way reinforces the view that he has missed the adulation of the fans and its what makes him tick.
If you remove this mental state from Rooney’s play you will not see the same player. The Premier League sells itself on the passion of the game and its fans. Because Rooney doesn’t have a smile on his face after he has scored is not a negative as many make out, some of the greatest ‘celebrations’ have been mean, moody and downright ugly. One only has to look at American sport, the spike into the ground after a touchdown, the stare of the basketballer who has just dunked over his opponent. One of the best remembered NFL teams were the LA Raiders, as mean and angry as they come, but fans loved them.
Saturdays outburst wont have been directed at fans, it will have been directed at the people who called him ‘worthless’, said he was not as good as we thought, but most importantly it will have been aimed at himself.
Rooney was saying to himself, take the last 12 months and shove it, I’m a new man again… I am WAYNE ROONEY
Crap article
* prepares rope
** kills self
^ James, care to elaborate on why you think it is a crap article?
I never understand why people comment on stories but don’t put a counter argument across as to why they think that…
Mmmmm where shall I start?
Wayne Rooney is not a nice person – fact. You can say all you like about the ‘torrid 12 months’ he has sufferd but alot of his ‘anguish’ has been self inflicted.
His celebration after scoring the winner against City was not one that said ‘love me love me’ it said ‘I love me I love me’. If Wayne wants to get back the respect he commands he should call a press conference while wearing a double sided board that reads ‘ I AM A CUNT’.
His mouth has got him in alot of trouble but its his cock that makes him a cunt. He is as much a ‘gentleman’ on the pitch as he is off of it.
Fair enough he has ‘turned it all around’. I am so pleased for him. But the fact remains that he pretended to want out of United for more money, or was it to just reiterate that he is a PROPER cunt. He still has a terrible attitude and he earns so much money now that it’s a disgrace.
The article might have well been called: Lets sit on a fence and ramble about nothing.
Grow a pair of balls and you’ll become a proper journo like myself in no time.
Toodles.
Piers
@James
His celebration against City by the way wasn’t even his own idea – it was Rio’s – pre-match he had told him he should do it if he scored!
@james
Should also add that blogs are just the opinions of fans – nothing about trying to be a journalist!
I won’t argue that the post doesn’t seem to take a long time to come to a bit of a non-conclusion, but james or Piers or whatever he’s signing off as seems to be arguing a point that wasn’t made. Bricki didn’t strike me as trying to argue that Rooney’s not a bit of a cock. If anything it was more “these things have contributed to why he is the way he is.” Treading old ground? Possibly. But then your reasons for hating the post did too, so I guess you’re even.
Anyway, even since his form’s started to come back a bit Rooney still hasn’t looked right to me. Unless, of course, this is what he’s like now. In which case: oh dear.
The zone is actually the subconscious as we have evolved we have evolved different aspects of the brain. The language I use to explain this can be challenged but the facts are pretty concrete.
Put simple, very simple the conscious mind can have 7 to 9 bits of info at a time plus or minus two the subconscious mind is operating on millions of things at the same time. The conscious mind is the analytical aspect of the brain. The subconscious mind remembers everything you have ever done. The subconscious mind writes programs but it cannot make rational decisions, only the conscious can do this. BTW what temperature is your left toe know? Hot or cold? You only become aware of this because I mention it before that was been taken care of via your subconscious. That thought in your head subsequently pushed other thoughts out of your head.
To make sense of this in terms of Rooney and all footballers they really want to act from the subconscious mind programming, they have done this they have done that they know what to do, the problem comes when it is interrupted by other thoughts.
Now we all know Rooney has had a bad time in the last twelve months and it has negatively affected his form, all he did was let the emotion out not at anyone just let of steam. I loved it, I see absolutely nothing wrong with it, he did no harm, unlike footballers who foul or cheat.
Had he been done for the elbow incident against Bolton I’d have had no problem but to be banned for two games for this is the worst decision I’ve known in over 40 years of watching football.
@james – its clear for me now why you call yourself journalist ,because you r complete pathetic joke- like all journalists are, who are you to say rooney is cunt(to be 100% honest i was saying the same then he was flirting with fucking city), whatever, maybe you have been bullied in school and now hate everything that has power and dont afraid expres it, i dont know, and for the money just get on with that its nowaday football everythere is the same. i personally think fucking media rats was way other the top criticising (softly said, more is just bile against him) and following him trying to linch him (remember wigan game and his elbow), of course it was disgraceful for him to flirt with city, but we all know who paul stretford is. people like james propably never experienced something extreme and hardship in general you propably some rich middle class boy in your parents heaven don’t need to worry about nothing, otherwise you should at least a little bit feel for rooney that he experienced in this horrible year. and pls dont put this nonsensical argument about “look how much he earns he should be happy”, don’t show envy its poor class. i bet you r not the poorest guy in the planet too. end of the line is he has right to be angry ,for me- thats for sure, after all this media abuse and witchhunt towards him. everybody would do the same – say fuck off to the media after hatrick
Comment by minimal — April 6, 2011 @ 1:27 pm
I think the banning of Rooney and the crap that has been talked about his emotional outburst via swearing on Saturday the most idiotic nonsense I’ve heard in 40 odd years watching live.
However you shouldn’t let yourself get would up to the point you are attacking an individual in the way you have. Besides only hurting yourself your point is lost.
Reading your post you just seem very angry and want to have a pop at the person whop wrote the article.
Often the best way to do this is by a superior point/s or ignore the person. I loved United’s comeback against WHU Rooney was out of this world I tuned in to Talkshite a few times they were talking shite so I turned off.
Wow. Strong and needlessly harsh words from James there, who seems to love himself a bit too much. Such big-headed arrogance reminds me of a certain Man Utd striker from Merseyside who you seem to think is a complete cunt James.
Anyway, back to the article. The piece IS opinionated in the fact that is a speculative analysis of Rooney’s persona. I don’t particularly like Rooney myself as an individual, and think the incident at West Ham should lead to a fair punishment, and I don’t agree with all that has been said by the author, but it is a very interesting take on things. For once, an intelligent review of someone’s psyche and history, rather than the somewhat lazy ‘journalism’ of calling him a cunt.
Good day fuck heads.
Glad to see all the responses.
At the end of the day its a game of football remember. We have wars going on all over the place and the media decide to put a football game player on the front page. Everyone starts talking about a twenty something scouse lad for WHAT, FUCKING WHAT?
You cannot deny that Rooney is not a nice person.
Regardless of how many goals he may score in a season the boy is scum. I love it when he scores but going as far as Minimal did and to actually masterbate over the green fuckers face is just wrong. He is a football player for goodness sake.
I’m a life time United supporter, as my Dad is and his Dad. Rooney technically is a United player, but he is no Ryan Giggs is he, he’s no Charlton and he certainly ain’t no saint. Everyone says how they are beginning to forgive him, in my eyes you are as bad as his stupid wife for sticking by him. Once a cunt, always a cunt.
If he can get through a whole season without looking like a cunt (which is impossible considering he looks like the hunchback of Notredames sisters hairy minge) I will smear my dog excrement in my face.
I was actually at the interview when Alex Ferguson announced that Rooney wants to leave. Alex was flabbergasted, bemused and almost in tears. I could almost make out a tear falling from his bulbus red nose. You all know as well as I do that you don’t upset Fergie and get away with it. It really upset me to see Fergie saying what he did and I’ll never forget the sense of trechery as Im sure Fergie won’t.
In Waynes case he got the bumper contract he wanted but whether he honours it is another story.
I could go on all day, all I really want is for Wayne to prove me wrong as he had been for the last month or two. I want to see him be a success with United. I want him to score in the Champs League final against Barcelone. I just want him to actually look like heappreciate how very lucky he is, despite his extremely deformed face.
WHAT, FUCKING WHAT?
James
You sound like an angry man yourself, or is that a touch of irony to go with the story.
You have either clearly invested far too much emotionally as a fan in our boy Wayne or he has carried out some despicable act on someone close to you.
Football has changed in recent years and the average time for a player to remain with a club has dropped significantly.
You only have to look down the M62 for an example. Andy Carrol, geordie boy breaks into the Newcastle 1st team over the last 18 months, times gone by you would have expected him to cement his place for a few years with his boyhood club and when the thirst for trophies comes along after a few barren years noone would bat an eyelid if he wanted to further his career.
It was exactly the same for Rooney, from a family of Everton fans he found himself at OT within 18 months of scoring a debut goal against Arsenal. Why would we be surprised that this Evertonion would flirt with moving on.
I love watching united, it hurts when we lose, I get angry at team selections some times and when players don’t play to their full potentiol.
I have put the player side of the game into perspective, they are all pros and in game for the finacial gain, even our beloved Cantona’s reasons were not entirely football orientated, he thought the club took the piss a bit when it came to his image and the money the club made off the back of it.
I just make the most and try to enjoy watching quality players like Rooney & Ronaldo during their time with the club. I didn’t particularily like Ronaldo as an individual but I was able to enjoy watching the best footballer on the planet pull on a red shirt and wouldn’t have changed that for all his flirtings with Madrid.
Billy Connolly once said there is no such thing as bad language, just bad use of good langauge. Just a though.
Boys boys boys, this is getting heated!
I’m an English teacher and am using some of your blogs (your details will be changed) in some of my lessons to engage the pupils. But what do I ask them?
Do I ask them if Wayne Rooney is a good role model?
Do I ask them if they believe it is ok to behave like this on the football pitch?
Do I ask them if the normal rules of respect should or should not apply in sport?
These are rhetorical questions.
But the point is that it does matter how we treat people and it does matter how we behave in PUBLIC, football pitch or not.
And before any of you jump in making statements about what i must be like and how much money i must have- you are wrong!!! The pupils that i teach are from the same place as me- deprived. No other schools want them so they are here, and they are angry and they kick- off and swear and punch some teachers and climb on the roof and out of windows and spend their evenings in police sells and smoke weed and steel cars- and they are twelve and thirteen. And this is their reality.
The only difference betweem the kids that i teach and me is that i was taught from an early age to ‘respect my elders’, to respect everyone, and i wish that the Wayne Rooneys and the parents and the other role models of this world would realise how inportant this actually is.
Watching ninety minutes of football has become a torturous experience because of the way these young men (children, boys, hot- heads) square up to the referee and to each other. Why is this ok? Why is this accepatble? And I don’t want to hear any BS about it being part of the game or about being in the heat of the moment- deal with it! If you cannot control your temper on the pitch then you cannot control your temper- full stop.
Respect is something that people need to realise is important.
End of rant!
Comment by Mildu
With all due respect the book stops with parents, never mind role models in the public eye. If the kids you teach are brought badly and do things you describe then it isn’t really Wayne’s job to start make up for those parent’s failings. You yourself admit the difference between them and you is that you were brought up to respect others.