Post by Chris Towland
phrase count: 697character width: 60Wayne Rooney – A New Boy Wonder for English Football?by Chris Towlandwww.Football-Nut.co.ukUntil England’s untimely exit at the hands of the hostnation (and a Swiss Referee), the player creating all thenewspaper headlines throughout Euro 2004 in Portugal was WayneRooney, English football’s most recent ‘boy wonder’.Nonetheless four month’s shy of his nineteenth birthday, Rooney’sfour Euro objectives….. two in opposition to Switzerland (which includes hisshot that rebounded off the post only to hit the Swisskeeper and bounce into the net) and two more superb goalsagainst Croatia, set English hearts racing with hopes of afirst key tournament win given that keeping the Planet Cup aloftin 1966.People hopes, of program, were eventually brought crashing toearth by a mix of a Wayne Rooney harm, anextremely dubious disallowed target and traditionally poorpenalty taking by the English team (like 1 from ourCaptain that Jonny Wilkinson would have been proud of!)No-1 can question Wayne Rooney’s performances for hiscountry, the quality of his football at worldwide levelor his incredible goalscoring ability, but have Rooney’s performances in the blue shirt of his individual club, Everton,been as sparkling as those when wearing his nationalcolours?……. And what does the future maintain for our’Roonaldo’?Rooney’s Premiership debut arrived early in the 2002/2003campaign when he became the youngest Premier League playerat the tender age of sixteen. Two other records quicklyfollowed….. Firstly, the two targets he scored in Everton’sWorthington Cup victory more than Wrexham gave Rooney the titleof Everton’s youngest-actually goalscorer, a document that hadpreviously been held by Tommy Lawton. Secondly, in October2002 and at the age of sixteen a long time and 360 days, a cracker of agoal that beat the England goalkeeper David Seaman in thelast handful of seconds of the sport versus Arsenal, manufactured Rooneythe youngest-at any time Premiership scorer!Numerous England enthusiasts will be shocked to listen to nonetheless, thatapart from a handful of very notable occasions, Wayne Rooney’sperformances in the Premiership have been significantly less thanspectacular as he has often appeared unable to duplicate hisEngland sort on the domestic stage!In his first season of Premiership action he produced fourteenfull appearances for Everton and arrived on as a substitute atotal of nineteen occasions. During this time Rooney scored atotal of 6 Premiership goals which included the goal inNovember 2002 that gave Everton their very first win at LeedsUnited for 51 a long time. A month later, Wayne Rooney was sentoff in a sport that Everton drew with Birmingham Metropolis.Ironically, this was on the quite same day that James Milnerof Leeds United broke Rooney’s youngest Premiership scorerrecord by the tiny margin of just 3 days!In the course of the 2003/2004 time Rooney was certainly catchingthe eye of Sven Goran Erickson, the England crew manager,but statistical data of his time present quite possibly a lowertally in the goalscoring department than a lot of England fanswould have expected. In reality, from 20-6 fullappearances and 8 as a substitute, Wayne Rooney scoredonly nine Premiership targets.But as for the past, who cares? As the complete of Europe noticed,Rooney was masterful throughout Euro 2004 and if it wasn’t forhis broken metatarsal who knows how far he and his Englandteammates could have progressed?As for the long term, there is speak in the press of massivebids in the region of £50 million from either Chelsea orManchester United. Rooney himself is mentioned to prefer theManchester selection which would maintain him shut to his North-West roots but it is achievable that the deep Chelsea pocketsmay force United out of the bidding.Wherever Wayne Rooney ends up enjoying his football for thenext few seasons, let’s hope that for the sake of theEnglish game his progress continues and that he reaches theheady heights that have been forecast for him and reallydoes turn out to be England’s ‘Boy Wonder’!Chris TowlandJune 2004
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