Wigan chairman Dave Whelan has slammed with Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney for focusing on other matters than winning football matches. Rooney is very keen on moving away from Manchester United with Chelsea keen to secure his services. Whelan, though, argues that the player lost his passion for winning football matches last season itself. Rooney scored only 16 goals last season in a season in which he was overshadowed by Robin van Persie. The presence of the Dutchman is thought to be the key reason behind Rooney wanting to move away from Old Trafford.
However, it was only one season ago that Rooney finished the campaign with 34 goals in all competitions and he was spoken of as one of the best players in the world. Even last season, his goal return is extremely healthy because he managed 16 goals by largely being a substitute and also playing out of position. Whelan and his team Wigan will be taking on Manchester United in the Community Shield in what will be their second appearance at the new Wembley stadium in their history. Rooney will be once again missing from the Manchester United team as he has done for the last few friendly matches.
Wigan, though, will be looking to achieve magic once again by winning the Community shield.
“If we are being perfectly honest, and we’ve all watched him, he went off last season. He lost that fantastic sparkle. He went off the boil. It seemed to me his will to win had gone. He was being lazy. He wasn’t grafting. He wasn’t running around. And whether it was because the other lad (Robin van Persie) was getting the limelight and scoring the goals, I don’t know. What does he want? He is at one of the finest clubs in the world,” said Whelan.