Fans Comment
Graham Kelly

"The truth" about Rooney
15 September 2004

ToffeeWeb seems to be full of articles along the lines of "will we ever know the truth about Rooney?"  It seems to me that "the truth" is fairly simple, but confused by the different perspectives of the three parties — the fans, the club and Rooney/Proactive.  Here is my assessment.

The fans (the easy one)

Being a football fan, especially an Evertonian, has a lot in common with following a religious cult  During the long dark years of underachievement, we have all dreamed of the emergence of a saviour, a young player with the following characteristics: a local lad from a blue-blooded family, rising through the youth ranks, scoring spectacular goals from absolutely nothing, wearing the England number nine, and expressing the same everlasting loyalty that we feel.  In short, Roy of the Rovers.

Amazingly, it became more than a dream, and we all know that it will never happen again in our lifetimes.  Letting that dream go is more difficult than watching him wearing a United shirt.

The Club (i.e. the Board and Moyes)

All of the above is true for them as well, but they knew more about the seriousness of our financial problems.  They were haunted by the following scenario: Rooney stays at the club and continues to perform in the mediocre (by his standards) manner that we saw in 2003-04.  In 2007, he walks away for nothing, or leaves in the preceding year for a knockdown price, as the end of his contract approaches.

So Bill Kenwright was not lying when he said he wanted to keep Rooney, but he was always aware that the circumstances were unlikely to allow this.  The offer of a big contract had to be made, just in case the boy (or more importantly Proactive) actually said "yes"... and to prevent the potential nightmare of a total meltdown on season-ticket sales.  However there were risks attached to an acceptance, given that we are not a rich club these days.  What if his club form stayed mediocre?  Even worse, what if he got a serious injury, developing into a Duncan Ferguson situation?  And even if he started off OK under the new contract, how would he feel about the quality of players we could then attract to be his teammates, on what was left of the salary budget?

So the Everton Board faced a combination of these worries, plus an overdraft at the limit, £8M due to other clubs, dilapidated training facilities, and a squad that needed strengthening in depth just as much as it needed one genius.  The prospect of about £25M was starting to look attractive.  (Talk of £50M was never more than hype in today's market).

Rooney / Proactive

I'm sure we all agree what Proactive was thinking throughout this.  Cash in ASAP, in case the lad gets injured, becomes crap, becomes an alcoholic / wife beater / Gascoigne 2, etc.  No crystal ball necessary.

I believe that Rooney was totally genuine with his "Once a blue" T-shirt, but he was just 16, and just as much a fan as a player.  Particularly after he entered the England squad, the balance tipped and he became a fairly standard modern player, fully aware of his commercial worth, with the accompanying arrogance.  The riches available with Man U became his goal (much aided by Proactive, who had possibly already agreed things in principle with Man U).

I believe his mind was made up well before Euro 2004.  I also think that there is an unwritten understanding in the modern football world that all clubs, except Man U, Real Madrid, Barcelona, the Milan clubs and Chelsea, will let players "better themselves" (i.e. get mega-rich) if an opportunity arises for the both parties to cash in.  Rooney / Proactive probably took this as a given, and were angry that Everton appeared to be uncooperative by demanding that he requested a transfer.  This is what the boy meant by "I know the truth".

In conclusion

All of these factors came together as the new season approached.  His injury looked like delaying things until January (who wants to pay £65k a week to watch him on the treatment table), until Newcastle intervened, following their unexpected chance to cash in on Woodgate.  The rest is history, and we have to learn from it, no matter how unpalatable the lessons are.  In this case they are as follows:

• we wasted too much money in the Johnson / Smith era, continued digging the hole under True Blue, and now the crunch has come
• the money available to top-class players these days will always override personal loyalty
• all we can do is improve Everton as a business, and this will be a long hard slog, though the good news is that it surely can't get more painful than it was at the end of August 2004.

Graham Kelly

Reader Responses

There is still one thing i cant get my head around. I can understand the board dilemma about whether to keep or sell - a huge decision. I can well understand Pro-Active's motives to get the lad to move on. But after all this time I cannot understand for the life of me why at 18 Wayne (a life-long blue) felt so strongly the desire to leave everton. Not for the glamour of Real Madrid, but to Man United for which he surely can feel no love or affinity. A team who have surely past their peak, are playing second or third fiddle to the class of Arsenal and the cash of Chelski. True, they have been a successful club over the years. But if we only follow football to win how come we didnt all become arsenal supporters last season. I would love ToffeeWeb to conduct a poll just to see what other Blue noses think. If YOU were Wayne Rooney (if only) on £10k a week at Everton would you have left for £50k a week to Man United this season.
Mark O'Brien

I suspect that the majority of Blues would say they would have stayed at Everton for $1,000 a week but Wayne obviously had his reasons. — ToffeeWeb