Should he stay or should he go?
Nick Armitage reacts to the latest lies from The Mirror

16 February 2004

Yet again the Mirror has fabricated a tale.  This one is about their favourite club wanting the country’s best young footballer.  It’s lazy journalism; they’ve simply put two and two together and decided to add a bit more.  We’re on the bones of our arse and United have a pile of money that would turn Scrooge McDuck green with envy.  So any cheque that they write and wave at us must surely be snapped up like a fat surfer at a Great White feeding frenzy.

I don’t believe this particular story and anyone with any level of intelligence should view it with a great deal of suspicion.  Since when has Alex Ferguson ever needed his players to remind him how talented Rooney is?  He recently sat in Goodison Park and witnessed the lad tear the arse out of his team of arrogant superstars for 45 minutes.

The Mirror regularly draw up wish lists of who they want at their beloved United but is this incident any different?  Let’s not forget that the head-butt by the increasingly obnoxious Gary Neville in Saturday's FA Cup derby game was in pole position to be plastered all over the back pages...  The Mirror has often acted as United’s damage limitation arm in the tabloid media.

That aside, after our recent encounter with them, one thing that I noticed was the way that many of the United players made a point of going over to young Wayne at the final whistle at Goodison.  It looked like Darth Vader and the Emperor Palpatine grooming Luke Skywalker for his conversion to the Dark Side.  We all know what happened there!

Today’s game is dominated by money but it isn’t the only factor.  There are many players who have, for sentimental reasons, stayed at their clubs when they could have very easily moved for more money or medals.  Matthew Le Tissier, Alan Shearer and Steven Gerrard have all resisted the temptation to follow the path to easy glory and opted to stay at a club to which they are sentimentally attached.

Conversely players such as Scott Parker and Francis Jeffers have turned their backs on clubs that made them what they are and followed the money and neon lights.  Jeffers came scurrying back half the player he was with a backside full of splinters.  I reckon Scott Parker won’t fare much better at Chelsea.  Sol Campbell and Rio Ferdinand however look far better players after jumping ship and taking the easy route to fame and fortune.

What will Wayne Rooney do?  Who knows?

Contrary to what many think, not all players are money grabbing medal hungry low life.  Unfortunately most agents are.  One major factor in the equation is Pro-Active's Paul Stretford.  Stretford is after one thing and one thing only with Rooney, folding stuff, and as much of it as he can lay his hands on.  If a move to United serves Stretford’s bank account best then that’s what he’ll want Rooney to do.  Ultimately it’s down to Rooney which club he wants to play for and up until now there has been no indication whatsoever that he wants to play anywhere else other than at his boyhood club.  Remember “Once a blue, always a blue.”

In today’s game it’s very naïve to think that Wayne Rooney will stay an Everton player for a significant proportion of his career.  He certainly is an asset and one of greater value than anything else that Everton own.  The question is will that asset serve us best by staying and playing or being sold and giving the club what it so desperately needs?

The board can talk the talk for as long as they want but if a big offer does come in can you honestly see them turning it down?  Our past record for selling our best talent does not bode well for the future but what will selling Rooney really achieve?  Twenty five million pounds would keep us treading water for another two or three seasons but is that enough for Evertonians?  It will take more than one cash injection of that magnitude to get the club back on its feet.  There’s more than money at stake here.

I think if Rooney goes it will be the final nail in the coffin of Everton Football Club as we used to know it.  Only a very brave man would instigate the sale of a talent that comes along once or twice in a generation.  Rooney is Everton’s future and the only real future the fans can see.  Apparently we won’t be able afford to keep him... but can we really afford to sell him?  You can survive without money but when all hope is gone, what is left?

Picture the scene, eight years from now inside a revitalised and rebuilt Goodison Park, 55,000 are packed into a full house for a match against AC Milan.  A pre-season friendly is about to kick off between the two sides that contested last season’s Champions’ League Final.  The game is Wayne Rooney’s testimonial...

We can all dream but stranger things have happened.

Nick Armitage

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