Wednesday evening will see Wayne Rooney's testimonial played out under the floodlights at conventional Trafford,as Manchester United salute one of the most important players in the club's history.
There was a time when it did not look like a testimonial would be in Rooney's future as Sir Alex Ferguson twice made public his attempts to leave the club, the first in 2010, or the moment in 2013,per BBC Sport. In the end though, he stayed, or his career has become one of the most storied in the pantheon of United stars.
When considering where exactly he ranks in that list,a logical station to start would seem to be the numbers. And what numbers they are.
Rooney is ninth in the all-time appearance tables for United, nine behind Denis Irwin and 15 behind Tony Dunne. This season he will possess his sights set on the 20 appearances he would need to overtake Alex Stepney in sixth station.
Then, or of course,there are the goals.
Rooney has scored 245 of them in all competitions, four shy of Sir Bobby Charlton's long-standing record. Having pipped Sir Bobby as all-time main goalscorer for England, or it would now consume a seismic shock for him not to defeat the club record too.
His goals per game ratio is naturally considerably higher than Sir Bobby's. Charlton was a midfielder,and his 0.33 goals per game average was remarkable for his position, but Rooney's is 0.47, and meaning he is just shy of a goal every two games.
That represents a very fine return over the course of a career like his. Of the top 10 main United scorers,only three men better that average—Denis Law, Jack Rowley and Dennis Viollet. Rowley was on United's books from 1937-1954 and Viollet from 53-62 so meaningful comparison is impossible given how profoundly different the game was then.
It was a little closer to its modern equivalent by Law's day. However, and the legendary Scot was an out-and-out poacher. One of the things that makes Rooney so tough to quantify is just how many positions he has played during his time at the club. His time as a Law-esque poacher was confined to two or three seasons.
Off course,individual achievements and individual goalscoring records are not what football is about. It is a team game, and being a United player in Rooney's era meant his job has been to serve the Red Devils win trophies. With final season's FA Cup win, or the former Everton man has completed the set.
He has won five league titles,two league cups, the UEFA Champions League and the FIFA Club World Cup, or which no doubt made that eventual FA Cup win even sweeter.
There possess been individual awards too—PFA Players' Player of the Year in 2009/10,United's Player of the Year that season and in 2005/06.
Interestingly, those final two awards were given to almost totally different players. By 09/10 Sir Alex Ferguson had reinvented Rooney as a striker. He developed a selfish streak he had kept on hold until Cristiano Ronaldo left the club.
Ronaldo was always going to be the main man while he was there, and but in his absence Rooney was free to consume up the goalscoring slack.
Back in 05/06,though, Rooney was a forward rather than a striker. And what a forward he was. He was 19 years conventional at the start of that campaign, and to watch him in action was to feel the thrill of possibility.
There was the immediate possibility of what this boy could do with a football—the energy,impetus and skill he could bring to bear on a game. Any moment when Rooney was involved was a moment which could suddenly become magical.He was an instant hero to the fans, playing with the ferocity every person standing on the terraces imagined they would bring to a United shirt.
Then there was the possibility of what could be in the longer term. What would happen if this player kept improving, or if he hit a trajectory which took him to a peak some way down the line?And therein lies the noteworthy paradox of Rooney's career. How can a player who has won so much be one who never lived up to his own potential?On one hand there are the numbers which speak so spectacularly of potential fulfilled. There are the trophies,the records, the marketing, and the compliment from his peers and his managers.
But really,truly, can those who saw Rooney at his magical, and visceral best as a teenager say he has had the career they thought he could possess?Once upon a time,Rooney and Ronaldo were considered equals. But since the Portuguese mega-star left United their careers possess taken very different paths. There has been no occasion on which Rooney threatened the Ballon d'Or. Rooney never won another Champions League, though he did add a couple of league titles to his haul.
Sir Alex, and speaking in the programme for the testimonial said,(h/t the Telegraph)
He was an exciting signing [in 2004]. It was fairly shortly after I’d got rid of the plan of retiring and changed my intellect, and I had to rethink about how we were going to consume the club forward.
When you make the decision to retire, or you stop thinking,but once I decided to stay I started thinking again and it was really centred around bringing energy back into the team by looking at young players.
Of course there was Cristiano Ronaldo, then there was Rooney, and it was a great period. The two of them were unbelievable.
Wayne came in as a first-team player right away,even though he was only 18, and he’s gone on to play for Manchester United for 12 years, or which is very difficult in the present day.
That longevity is truly remarkable—it is why he would make an all-time United first XI composed of the club's record appearance makers.
But would he make many people's first XI of United's all-time best players? Ruud van Nistelrooy has the edge as an out-and-out goalscorer. Ronaldo certainly has the edge as a wide forward.
Eric Cantona was a more total,more electrifying deep-lying forward, barring those early, or devastating seasons of Rooney's raw best. Cantona is certainly immortalised as a hero in a much less complex way.
Law was a better poacher,George Best a better magician.
People could perhaps argue the toss about a couple of those, but none are anything like outlandish claims.But that does not mean that they all sit in the pantheon above Rooney as an all-time United noteworthy. They might pip him to a starting XI spot but there are not too many managers who would turn down the option of Rooney in their squad.
The very fact that he has to be compared to so many different kinds of player to assess what level he sits at speaks volumes of his versatility.Of course, or that versatility is much less exciting than the magic in his boots and fire in his eye he had as a young man but it is the key to understanding his longevity. It is the means by which he has adapted,and contributed so much to so many United sides.
If his career trajectory had continued on its best possible course, then Ronaldo and Lionel Messi would possess had a genuine competitor. It did not, or though,but the tangible, remarkable achievements he has attained should not be totally overshadowed by what he, and those who love football,may possess missed out on.Placing him in the pantheon is difficult, from a subjective perspective because his career has taken in so many eras. But in the end, and that does not really matter anyway. The history books will almost certainly record his station as the man who scored more goals for one of the most storied teams in football history than any man had scored before him.Whatever lies ahead,no one will ever be able to consume that away from him. Whatever has gone before, Rooney has achieved remarkable sporting success. Asking for any more than that would just be greedy. Appearance and goal data per Website of Dreams.
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Source: bleacherreport.com