Back in 2005 me and a group of friends at school were discussing Wayne Rooney when one of my teachers interrupted and delivered the caveat ` he will find a way of messing himself up, every time we find a player of that quality he ruins himself`. He cited the examples of George Best and Gazza as footballers blessed with extravagant talent yet cursed with the propensity for self-destruction. I wonder if my teacher gave up his profession to become a clairvoyant.
Rooney may not have plunged to the depths of Best and Gascoigne (not yet anyway), after all the professionalism of the modern game safeguards footballers against the worst excesses, but the Evertonian has never strayed too far from the fountain of controversy. No English footballer in the last few years has taken up so much space in the column inches and garnered so many headlines good and bad. Joey Barton may have pushed the boundaries of social acceptability further but Rooney`s standing as the country`s leading footballer has seen him hog the limelight. Infamy is a drug which Rooney has been unable to fully kick.
Where to start with Rooney? His disciplinary record? His ill-advised gambling? His extra marital affairs and penchant for Zimmer framed prostitutes? Or maybe the coterie he has surrounded himself with from his dad (who looks like a cleaner for the Liverpool underworld) to his agent Paul Stretford whose business dealings remain murkier than the River Thames.
All these factors have given the media plenty of ammunition to besmirch his name and tarnish his reputation. Words such as maturity and learning curve have been lazily bandied about (often by Ferguson), yet at the age of 25 Rooney shows no real progress of having gained an acceptable measure of self-control. The interesting thing about the Wayne Rooney story is his indiscretions have come at the expense of England rather than United.
Whilst United have been festooned with honours since 2005, England have floundered. England`s misery has to a large degree been linked with the fortunes of Rooney. His untimely injury in Euro 2004 robbed us of his gifts in the QF against Portugal and cut him down when he was threatening to lead us to something special. Two years later a metatarsal injury deprived him of the chance to be at his best in the WC, but he compounded his misery and ours by getting himself sent off by stamping on Carvalho.
Last year his abysmal form was a significant reason for the humiliating campaign in South Africa. Now his latest act of petulance has seen him banned for the entire group stage of Euro 2012. Most of us have resigned ourselves to the fact that Rooney`s mindless acts are congenital and only he himself can find a solution to curb his destructives urges.