Colm Kavanagh contemplates the implications of a £30M offer for Wayne Rooney
Thinking the Unthinkable
Fig
Nice to see the tabloid back pages affording those shy Beckham's a day off this past Sunday... Instead, the headlines raged with stories of Chelsea (it'll end it tears, I tell yer..) dipping into their new-found wealth and coughing up thirty million big ones for our own 17-year-old "wunderkind", Wayne Rooney. Yeah, right. And pigs might fly.
Like most other Evertonians (I presume!), I laughed off the story as idle pre-season tabloid nonsense. Today, I read it's Thierry Henry off to Chelsea — for £50 million! Tomorrow, Duncan Ferguson? (We can only hope!)
It makes a change, I suppose, from the daily scramble for anything related to the Beckham circus. With Roman Abramovich now cast as Fairy Godfather you can be sure the tabloids will link all and sundry with moves to Chelsea. Unfortunately for us, young Rooney is about to become, if not already, one of these players whose every move earns space inside the covers of every tabloid rag. Get used to it... footy content will be minimal; anything off-field will be widely reported. Master Rooney is now at the mercy of the tabloid press. The fact that we've not had such interest expressed in one of our players over recent seasons only adds to our apparent sensitivity over every article on the kid.
So... Thirty million quid? If it were indeed a genuine story, would you sell? No?
Remove the emotion from the possible scenario for a second and think of the money. As ever, it's the bottom line in the game today — without it, you're nothing. I'd love to think that I'll be watching Wayne Rooney playing his entire career (successfully) in the Blue shirt we all love... but the game is not like that these days. Those of us who'll never see 30 again can recall star players of old who played the best part of their career at one club. Mick Lyons at our place; Trevor Brooking at West Ham; Pat Rice at Arsenal; Tommy "Oh me knees" Smith across the park... etc.
Those days are long gone when players became a part of the fixtures and fittings. Nowadays, in the shark-infested world of football agents and agents representing those agents, we see players kissing badges one minute and elsewhere, in a different teams colours, the next.
Take a good look at the current Everton squad and name me one of those players who has been at Everton for the past decade. You'll name not one. [Er... I could get pedantic with yiz there, Colm (Leoan Osman?) but I won't — Ed].
If we did see an auction for Rooney's services commencing, you can be assured that the big boys would all want a piece of the action. No club, not even Manchester United, could reject a ludicrous offer of £30 million for the service of one player, no matter how highly rated he is. Every player has his price and £30M is way above the current market price. With our finances being what they are (comatose), we are most certainly not in any position of strength to refuse such a crazy offer.
With the way football operates today, I think we're best advised to appreciate the presence of Wayne Rooney in an Everton shirt while it lasts. We have always sold our best players and I can't see that ever changing. Alan Ball, Howard Kendall, Gary Lineker — to name but three players who departed well before passing their sell-by date. Uproar is inevitable when a star player finds himself donning the colours of a rival but it is what makes football tick — terrible as it is when it's your player making an exit.
Young Rooney has, I think, an initial two-year contract with an option for a further three seasons. Let's enjoy him while he himself is living his own footballing dream, playing for his boyhood heroes. Let us not forget though that this kid has chosen to become a professional footballer; in the anything but perfect world of professional football, it is so often the case that you pack your bags and play for whoever pays your wages. Wayne Rooney will be no exception.
The recent shambolic effort of a documentary on Sky One saw a comment from Simon O'Brien ruffle a few Evertonian feathers. When asked about the finest young white hope for many a season, he expressed a somewhat negative view that he'd be very surprised to see Rooney remaining in Everton blue two seasons from now. With the climate of the game at the minute, he just might be right.
Of course, we all hope to see and hear David Moyes brush off whatever bids come in for the kid with the "no sale" sign being firmly put in place. We don't necessarily want to be seen (again) selling our best players as it certainly doesn't help the manager in his task of returning Everton to better times. But look at it this way — we finished seventh last season and hope to further prosper this season. That means finances required by the manager and it's obvious for all to see at Everton that nobody is willingly in possession of deep pockets readily available for squad strengthening. We cannot compete with many of our rivals in the transfer market. The day will come when someone at the Club suggests cashing in the chips. Whether that day arrives before Paul Stretford instigates it is another thing...
Who knows... £30M alongside the ring-fenced money for the sunken King's Dock project — we just might have the cash available to bring the Bullens Stand into the modern era.
Colm Kavanagh 7 July 2003