By the time Jose Mourinho had acquired the services of the likes of Paul Pogba, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Henrikh Mkhitaryan, it was pretty clear that Wayne Rooney may not enjoy an automatic selection in the starting XI which he had grown accustomed to in his last ten years at the club.The England international is a shadow of his former self and this has been the case for the past few years now. While the likes of David Moyes and Louis van Gaal were accommodating and even patient with the club captain, Jose Mourinho was having none of that. The moment Rooney started showing signs of a player who will struggle to adjust to his philosophy, the former Chelsea manager relegated him to the bench. This despite knowing that his player could fill in multiple forward roles.
Nonetheless, it was quite a moment for the England striker when his freekick helped his team rescue what seemed an unlikely point against Stoke City. In a game where the likes of Pogba, Ibrahimovic and others struggled to find a way around the goalkeeper, it was vintage Rooney with yet another collector’s item to save his team’s blushing.
With that goal, Rooney becomes the all-time leading goal scorer at Manchester United, ahead of the legendary Sir Bobby Charlton. However, it is quite clear that most people have not been overjoyed by the striker’s milestone. In fact, various comments on blogs seem to suggest that no matter how many goals the Englishman ends up scoring, he will never be ahead of Sir Bobby Charlton.
Indeed, a couple of incidents have tarnished Rooney’s reputation among the club’s faithful fans. Twice, the former Everton man requested to be allowed to leave and twice the club caved in to his financial demands. Indeed, that turned his relationship with the fans sour and the cult status he used to enjoy, became a forgotten memory.
Despite being the all-time leading goalscorer for club and country, Rooney’s achievements have not been celebrated as much as such achievements usually are. But then again, who can blame fans for that! At one side there’s a legend who gave everything for his club, survived the Munich disaster, stuck with the team and returned it to its old glory and on the other side there’s a player who wanted to abandon ship once he saw that the club was in for a tough time.
Nonetheless, Rooney might have turned a new leaf in recent years. Or maybe, United’s travails post Ferguson have coincided with those of the Englishman. At 31, Rooney is a shadow of his former self and even though he has achieved quite a lot in an illustrious career, his time with Manchester United would always be remembered as that of a player whose career could have been much more fabled or storied like that of the man whose record he has broken.
Regardless, Rooney’s achievements do make him a legend – perhaps not on the level of the most talented of the Busby Babes era but at least to the level of the likes of Alan Shearer, Thierry Henry, Andy Cole and Dwight Yorke.
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