BETTER A DEVIL THAN A GOD

Last updated : 07 September 2004 By editor
From the Times
By Alyson Rudd


WAYNE ROONEY’S DEFECTION TO Manchester United prompted various pieces of rude or amusing graffiti on walls around Goodison Park, but the most telling anonymous advice was the scrawl that stated that Rooney could have been a god but instead chose to be a devil. If Rooney has any intelligence at all, he will have read that slogan and breathed a sigh of relief. Who wants to be a god at 18?

If you set aside the obvious financial advantages for Rooney and his agent in signing for United, the young forward might also have been tempted to join a club where many gods emerge and are never lonely.

One of Sir Alex Ferguson’s beliefs is that any player should be able to turn to the man sat next to him in the dresssing-room and believe himself lucky to have that man in his team.
Moyes gave Rooney his first-team debut at 16 and said at the time that he would care for his teenage prodigy in the same way that Ferguson had nurtured and protected Ryan Giggs. That whole wrapping of Giggs in cotton wool episode gave rise to a myth; namely, that Ferguson knows better than anyone how to deal with young, impressionable players.

But the truth is, Rooney will receive unequivocal backing and support from his new manager only if he performs on the pitch. The mistake is to regard Ferguson as paternalistic. He does not take an interest for the sake of the player but for the sake of the team. So, before Rooney is exposed again in the red tops, he had better make sure that he has muscled Alan Smith and Louis Saha on to the bench if he wants fierce, unswerving support from his new manager. And perhaps that is just the motivation Rooney needs, rather than the all-pampering life of an Everton hero.