SCOUSE PROTECTION

Sir Bobby Charlton, the Manchester United and England legend, has hailed Wayne Rooney as "the only player who can get me off my seat" and called on English football "to protect" this "marvellous talent".

"He's a marvellous talent, and the game has to do its best to protect him," said Charlton, writing in the foreword to Colin Malam's fascinating The Boy Wonders: Wayne Rooney, Duncan Edwards and the changing face of football (Highdown, £16.99; published Sept 4). "We at Manchester United will definitely protect him.

"He's got the right character for our game, and I feel sorry for him when he goes too far. But he'll learn. It's happened to lots and lots of players, though never with the spotlight as bright as it is today. But I don't worry about Wayne Rooney at all. I only feel sorry for myself when I can't see him, because he's a marvellous player, a potentially great player.

"Wayne will still be playing at 35 or 36. He loves the game and he's quite a bright lad, a funny lad. The rest of the players think he's great. I think he's the best player around in the country. As soon as he picks the ball up, you think: 'I'm glad he's got it!' He can be as delicate as anything, with a little touch just to knock it out of the reach of his defender, and round the box he wants to score.

"It's the things people go to matches for. You come to see somebody like him and you want to go home and say: 'What a goal he scored today!' Certainly, Wayne Rooney is the only player who can get me off my seat."

Charlton was asked by Malam, the distinguished Sunday Telegraph football reporter, to compare Rooney and Edwards, whom Charlton played alongside before Edwards perished at Munich.

"If you asked me if I saw any similarities between Duncan and Wayne Rooney, I would say their enthusiasm, their love of playing the game.

"But Wayne is different. For a start, he plays in a different position from the one Duncan usually occupied. He does things that Duncan doesn't do, and Duncan did things he could never do. Kids come to me now and ask what Duncan Edwards was really like. What I tell them is that he was really gentle as a person, but really loud with his football. Tough as hell he was, too, and brave as a lion.

"On the pitch he was like a big dynamo. His size and presence were undeniable and have never been bettered since. People have tried to compare him with anybody who has had a couple of good games, and said: 'It's the new Duncan Edwards!' It happened with Bryan Robson, and Kevin Beattie, but there's nobody like him.

"Roy Keane was a bit of a talisman, but even he didn't have the strength, the power and the ability of Duncan. But for Munich and his tragic early death, Duncan would have been one of the most famous players in the world. I miss him still."