High time for United to take leash off Rooney

ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE: The Manchester United striker has yet to fulfil his true potential, but a freer role may allow Wayne Rooney live up to expectations, writes Kevin McCarra

WAYNE ROONEY has a wide range of talents and it is easy for him to be both maverick and leader. He has already scored five times for Manchester United in the Premier League this season and is quite likely to beat his personal best with the club of 23 goals in 2006-’07. Rooney, all the same, has still to fulfil his talent and seems not to be cut out for high office just yet.

Alex Ferguson grew reflective yesterday when asked if he had toyed with making the player captain. “Toyed is a good word,” said the manager, “but I don’t think he is ready.”

With Cristiano Ronaldo sold, Rio Ferdinand affected by back problems and the veterans Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes to be used sparingly, Rooney must still have enhanced responsibilities.

He can look prudent with England nowadays and has been cautioned only once in 15 appearances under Fabio Capello. The self-control is weaker with his club.

Last season was not his worst with United, but he still received 10 yellow cards (if you count the Community Shield) and one red. That ordering off came at Fulham. Rooney eyed up the corner flag as he headed for the tunnel and nailed it with a considered right-hander.

For good and ill, he continues to be a creature of spontaneity. The stroppiness was not so amusing on Tuesday in Istanbul, when he was sulky over his substitution and exchanged words with Besiktas fans. Rooney seems tied to this volatility.

Considering his uncanny gifts, he has still to fulfil himself. Rooney has all the necessary skills of an attacker, but is yet to be England’s footballer of the year or the world player of the year. He does not turn 24 until next month, but his moment ought to be approaching.

The 2008 Fifa prize went to Cristiano Ronaldo, while he was at United, and Kaka received it the year before. They were, respectively, 23 and 25 at the time. Rooney always looked destined for such recognition. That impression has existed since he came on for Everton as an 80th-minute substitute during the match with Arsenal in October 2002.

The then 16-year-old caused such immediate devastation that his first Premier League goal, fired high past David Seaman for the winner in the 90th minute, felt overdue.

According to David Weir, the then Everton centrehalf who now captains Rangers, the least startled people inside Goodison were his team-mates.

“From the minute he started training with us he felt he was the best player,” Weir recalled. “Not in an arrogant way. He just had confidence. He was the same that day against Arsenal. He always used to think he was the best, whether it would be in goal or at centrehalf. He said it like he meant it.

“He was just very mature in terms of his body and his confidence. The perception then was that he was quite shy and just a kid, but he wasn’t. He was strong-willed, he had his opinions and he did have a strong personality.”

Rooney, for all his gifts, has never been the detached sort of maestro. “He always liked Alan Shearer and in training it was as if that was who he was modelling himself on,” Weir recalled. “He was a big fan of Duncan Ferguson as well. They were his idols when he was growing up. I could see the similarities. Shearer was in your face, he was physical and when the ball dropped he hit it. Wayne has finesse but his first instinct was to do the basics.”

The aggression is part of Rooney’s being, yet he has to find a way of pairing that with a thoughtfulness that would make him an unarguably great footballer.

In most respects, his circumstances are ideal. “He’s at one of the very biggest clubs in the world, with Sir Alex as his manager,” said Weir, “but he’s still near his friends and family.”

Ferguson believes that Rooney continues to develop. “I have no worries about him because the expectation has always been there and he has always responded to it. I never had any worries about how Rooney would respond without Ronaldo,” he said.

“We are a different team now. Ronaldo was a bit loose in his defending, which you could forgive because he would give you other things. We are more compact (now) but we also have the increasing maturity of Darren Fletcher, Nani, and Rooney.”

By conventional standards, any United fan ought simply to feel grateful for the attacker. He does, however, deserve the best possible setting in which to explore the gamut of his talent. Rooney has that with England, revelling in the space that Emile Heskey makes for him.

With his club, he is often the target man, since no one else is so well qualified. Ultimately, however, United’s best chance of continuing to pile up the honours will come when they allow Rooney to cut loose and become everything he can be.

Guardian Service