Wayne Rooney has only himself to blame as his position at Manchester United and England continues to fall
THIS is not an obituary for Wayne Rooney’s football career.
Whatever the England captain might claim, Jose Mourinho and Gareth Southgate are composing that particular article on the basis of his steeply declining form.
So what to make of the Manchester United man’s outburst on Saturday — issued after being left on the bench for 62 minutes of an A-list fixture against Arsenal, despite Zlatan Ibrahimovic being suspended?
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Because last Wednesday, Rooney — under no pressure from the FA — issued a statement saying sorry for his infamous drinking session at England’s team hotel.
He said he “fully recognised” the “inappropriate” nature of images from his drunken foray into a wedding reception and revealed he had “apologised unreservedly” to interim manager Southgate.
Rooney also extended that apology to “children”, who, as Whitney Houston fans know, are our future. Teach them well and let them lead the way.
Yet after The Sun’s revelation that Southgate intends to replace him as England captain, his apologies became less “unreserved”.
Suddenly Rooney was banging on about media “disrespect” and claiming his England career is “not finished yet”.
Well it might have escaped Rooney’s attention but it isn’t entirely his decision whether his international career is over.
Despite the United skipper’s proclamation in August that he would quit international football after the 2018 World Cup — which some might have considered complacent and “disrespectful” — it will be Southgate’s call.
He believes Rooney does not merit a place in the starting XI when everyone is fit and, given his career’s sharp downward trajectory, it is unlikely to change.
So England’s manager-elect had already considered it likely that — once he had the job and therefore the authority — he’d be looking for a new captain come the next internationals in March.
Privately, Southgate is said to believe last week’s antics at The Grove — where Rooney drank until 5am on a day he was training — made a potentially difficult and controversial decision far less difficult and controversial.
If Rooney is not playing regularly and brilliantly for United by March, it is unlikely he will make Southgate’s next squad.
Indeed, it is not beyond the realms of possibility that Rooney could have joined the Chinese Super League by then.
So Southgate probably won’t rush into any announcements on Rooney when he is confirmed as manager either this week or next. He has immense respect for Rooney’s achievements — as does everyone in the media, by the way. Instead, he will wait for Rooney and Mourinho to make it a foregone conclusion by March. Mourinho’s insistence he had “faster” and “better” attacking options against Arsenal only echoed what many Einsteins have been saying about England for two years.
England internationals don’t get hounded out by the media at the age of 31 — whatever you might have read from people who earn good money in newspapers but seem to object to news.
England internationals either retire, as Rooney planned to do in 2018, or they play themselves out of contention — on and/or off the field.
Rooney will not lose the England captaincy because of one booze bender.
Others also misbehaved and now the FA have decided their once-mighty code of conduct is just a set of wishy-washy “guidelines” they won’t be cast into eternal hellfire either.
But Rooney won’t be England captain in March, his disrespect towards Southgate only helping the incoming boss to pen that obituary.
And the epitaph will be simple: Rooney simply isn’t good enough any more.
HIGHER LEVEL? GERROFF IT
IF Steven Gerrard turns down an offer to become MK Dons manager because he wishes to carry on playing, then good luck to him.
But if he’s convinced he will land his first managerial job any higher than League One, then the former England captain is likely to be disappointed.
Gerrard won 114 England caps — 96 more than the managers of all 92 league clubs combined.
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Burton’s Nigel Clough won 14, Carlisle’s Keith Curle three and Hull’s Mike Phelan one. And as Ryan Giggs has discovered, a stellar playing career is less likely than ever to earn a British footballer a plum managerial job — with top-flight coaching experience also of little help.
No Premier League club will employ a rookie manager, while Championship sides either go foreign — often with great success — or want a boss who ‘knows the division’.
Oh, and half the clubs in the second flight are owned by nutcases anyway.
So, rightly or wrongly, League One is about as good as it’s going to get.
FA SAUX OLD HAT
THE FA have 12 days left to appoint Gareth Southgate before they will have been without a permanent England manager for longer than the entire reign of the previous one.
Thankfully, they’re leaning on the experience of Howard Wilkinson, who won the league 24 years ago, and Graeme Le Saux, who used to read a posh newspaper 24 years ago, to help them select from their one-man shortlist.
Brian Clough used to claim: “I wouldn’t say I was the best manager in the business, but I am in the top one.”
And while he has a far more modest CV, Southgate would have gone into yesterday’s interview fancying himself to finish inside the top one of this one-horse race.
YAYA OR NO-NO?
ONE theory is that Pep Guardiola pulled off a masterstroke by freezing out Yaya Toure for the first three months of the season to show the midfielder and his turbulent agent exactly who’s boss.
Another theory is that Guardiola could have done with Yaya during Manchester City’s run of one win in five Premier League games which preceded the big man’s match-winning comeback at Crystal Palace.
And his public calling-out of agent Dimitri Seluk lent undue credibility to a clown.
EARLY EXET?
WITH their team next to bottom in the Football League, dozens of hardy Exeter City fans made the 700-mile round trip to Carlisle and were buoyed to see their heroes 2-1 up in the 89th minute.
But then Carlisle grabbed a late equaliser, followed by a 97th-minute winner . . . and that left the struggling Grecians bottom.
It’s not known whether any travelling supporters had left early to avoid the traffic.
TENNIS TITLES WILL DO ANDY
Yet he won’t give a hoot about ‘Sir Andy’ or the Beeb award. He only wants to be the best at tennis.
BERA-WHO?
SAIDO BERAHINO, the lesser-spotted West Brom striker, has issued a statement asking for privacy and an end to ‘constant’ media attention.
What media attention? Most of us had entirely forgotten about him.
EAST-PANNED & DOWN
REFEREE Roger East was rightly panned for his terrible decision to deny Bournemouth a penalty after Ryan Shawcross launched a wrecking-ball challenge on Callum Wilson.
But criticism of him for giving a spot-kick to Stoke after a theatrical tumble by Bojan was unfair, as he was actually fouled by Simon Francis.
In situations like these, though, referees should be able to give a penalty AND book the victim for an offence of ‘ludicrous exaggeration’.