Fans Comment
Garry Adams

No Place Like Home
3 July, 2004

Our Kid: Needs to develop at Goodison in front of the fans who will idolise him.

Being a Southern Evertonian, I find it hard enough to make conversation with people about my beloved club. All my mates "support", and I stress the quotation marks strongly, the so-called big clubs of my generation, Arsenal, Man Utd, Chelsea and unfortunately Liverpool (The idea that Liverpool have been a big club in the last ten years is about as preposterous as saying Gravesen is consistent).

Yet now, I find myself trying to ignore them as they constantly whisper in my ear the latest bit of news about you-know-who. I find myself dreading the very mention of those two little words, the very same words that I tried so hard to talk to people about two and a half years ago, Wayne Rooney. The great pride I felt when he produced so well against Turkey, the even bigger pride felt after the France and Switzerland games. For Wayne wasn't playing for the media, he wasn't playing for every makeshift fan that appears every two years with designer England shirts, he was playing for every Blue blooded person up and down the country who have sung his name from the rooftops for so long. Every shot, every pass, every goal, I looked around the pub with ever-increasing pride as the only person there with an Everton shirt on.

Yet, I wasn't greeted with congratulatory words for discovering and developing a talent such as this, I was greeted with people saying, "He'll be playing for us next season" and "Bye-Bye Everton". Do these FCUK-wearing prats realise what it is like to truly love a club with everything you have? How many of them have come home on a Saturday evening having spent a 3-hour car drive in complete silence 'just' because we lost one game? These guys have the total football knowledge of Andy Gray, and that isn't a compliment to them.

And that's just the common public. Since when have football 'pundits' commented on where a player should go to further his career? Whatever happened to the unbiased ex-pros who generally cared for a player's progression as a footballer? And if Gary Lineker thinks that by saying he should have stayed at Everton longer he can count himself as a worthy advisor to Wayne he has another think coming.

It has been said many times before and it will be said many times in the future. He's not even 19 yet and that means that he should have a good 12 years at the top of the game ahead of him. We know how he feels about the club, we know that if it were possible, he would spend his entire career at Goodison (let's face it, we'll still be there in 12 years time) and would win trophy after trophy with us behind him all the way. But as every good Evertonian knows, the good times aren't round the corner, they probably aren't even round the corner and over to the next block, and as such we must resign our self to lose him at some point in the future.

To win trophies though, he can easily stay at Everton for another three or four years and assess where we are going then. He will only be twenty-two in four year's time, hardly an age to look back with regret at your career. At Goodison he will be idolised, he will be the top-man at the club for years to come. At Old Trafford or the Bridge he will be a small fish in a big pond. Don't for one minute think their fans won't get on his back as soon as he loses form.

Ask yourself two questions: If Wayne had a dip in form for 5 or 6 games, would you, your mates or any other Evertonian you know call for his head? Now put yourself in the shoes of a Chelsea fan. Different answer to the same question? That's my point. To further his career, he can develop as a player where he is treasured, at the place he loves so much. Imagine an Everton team with Rooney and Jimmy Mac up front with Osman steaming forward from the middle of the park. Granted, its not the same as having Scholes and Ruud, but its definitely a start. Build round those guys and we might just have the basis for a good team. A team capable of challenging for the minor honours perhaps, but at least we wont be challenging for a play-off place.

On a sidenote, anyone else feel sick when they saw the cover story of a glossy mag this week? Wayne and Colleen, our story. And the next time I see a paper with the letters R-O-O in the headline I think I will scream. The Greeks have it good, try making a pun out of Georgios Karagounis. It's just not going to happen is it?
But seriously, to keep Wayne would be brilliant, however I fear the role of his agent and advisors will ultimately lead to the silence of thousands of Blue hearts breaking.

Garry Adams

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