England’s captain, record goalscorer and inspirational leader. Well he’s some of those things anyway!
Wayne Rooney has to be seen as an England great. After all, he has 108 caps, and will receive his 109th tonight against France. He’s scored 50 goals – more than anyone else – and he’s quite simply been England’s only player with top class name recognition and trophies for the last few seasons.
In the next decade Rooney will retire and England will rely on Raheem Sterling, Ross Barkley, John Stones and maybe even Daniel Sturridge if he can stay fit for long enough. It’s not a bad lot, at least in terms of potential. Roy Hodgson – or probably his successor – will just have to make sure that they reach that potential. If they do, England can go places.
Yet we’ve said that before. Too many times before.
In the days of David Beckham and Paul Scholes, Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard, England were routinely named as one of the best teams in the world. How could you argue with that, though? All of those players were not only wonderful servants to their clubs, but they were winners. Premier League titles are one thing, but they won on the European stage, too. Clearly they were some of the best players in Europe, yet they couldn’t do it internationally.
And that’s the depressing reality of English football. All of those players are now gone and the final link is Wayne Rooney, England’s top goalscorer and ‘only world class player’.
At least, that’s been the debate of late… is Rooney world class?
If England have ever had a world class player, then Rooney has to be in that category, too. He is the nation’s record scorer – he’s also closing in on Sir Bobby Charlton’s Manchester United record, too. So if you’re going on goals alone, he’s top.
And if you want to question his work rate surely you have to come to the conclusion that, at least for most of his career, he’s been second to none.
Yet Rooney, England’s national star, top scorer and main striker, hasn’t been prolific for an entire year. It’s partly because of his club’s troubles breaking down defences that Rooney has been singled out for criticism, but also partly because he’s looking old now. He’s puffing around the pitch like a man who’s simply past his best.
And that’s the problem England face. The guard has been changed, there’s negativity around the national team because they don’t inspire the same level of confidence that the likes of Lampard, Gerrard and Scholes did.
But what did the old guard ever achieve?
Rooney may be the link to that generation of top class players, but those old players never took England further than a quarter-final. They even failed to qualify for EURO 2008.
It might be management, it might be tactics, it might be a lack of passion, confidence or even media pressure. But whatever it was, it failed.
Yet it was still the vehicle to produce England’s top scorer of all time.
English football has to live with the reality that a man who, on current form, shouldn’t be getting anywhere near the national team is not only captain and top scorer, but is also probably one of the very few men who can class themselves as a bona fide legend.
In many ways that’s depressing. But it gives a chance to the new, young squad that Hodgson has at his disposal to shine. Maybe Hodgson should be thinking about giving them the opportunity to do it without Rooney…
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