FANS COMMENT

Farewell to Wayne

A few years ago, a friend of mine who was a regular spectator at many of the junior games played by Everton FC, kept me entertained by describing this fantastic new talent that we had coming through the ranks, “His name is Rooney, he insisted, “and he is fantastic”. To be honest, I didn’t take much notice of him as he was always one for going overboard, and I had heard this type of thing many times before, so I used to just humoured him with a polite “Oh really?”. T

That was until I took in a reserve game and noticed that this 'Rooney' had been included on the teamsheet. I can’t remember if he scored that night but I do remember the effort that this lad put in. And that he had a powerful shot on him that he seemed to use everytime he went anywhere near the goal. Maybe my friend did have a point after all.

The sense of indescribable excitement that started to spread out, like the first trickle on an ephemeral river bed before the inevitable raging torrent, spread through the Evertonian ranks. Rumours of this talent became stronger with every reserve goal he scored; maybe it was the fact that we were so dire in those depressing Walter Smith days, that any glimmer of hope was seized upon in the faint hope that we, Everton FC, had at last unearthed a gem. One of our own, who would be better than their Michael Owen.

I couldn’t believe it when he actually came onto the pitch to sign his first professional contract; I had never seen this honour awarded to anybody from the youth team before, so maybe we had found a special talent. The backroom staff certainly thought we had, and the sound bites coming out from the club suggested that this lad was a true blue Evertonian with the desire to match his undoubted skills to play for his boyhood team.

We all know what happened against Arsenal back in 2002; I, along with 35,000 others, couldn’t believe our eyes. Was this lad really only 16? When he came off the bench he was superb. He could have scored a couple, and his presence seemed to lift the whole team; how on earth could a 16-year-old do that?

I remember puffing out my chest with pride after he had been the player of the tournament for England in the European championship. He was an Everton player but, more importantly, he was just like me — he was a fan too, and he was living out my dream.

I don’t know what went wrong after that. Some theorise that he had no choice, and was just a pawn in the financial mess that was Everton FC. Others argue that it was just plain greed and he was offered the kind of money that most of us would only see if we won the jackpot on the lottery 10 times. There is also a train of thought that the lad wanted to win things and couldn’t see any hope of doing that at Everton, so a move to a rich ambitious club was his only option. Whatever the reason, it happened amongst much sabre-rattling from Everton fans. I remember this mailbag being showered with letters for the best part of a couple of months giving every possible viewpoint and theory regarding “Our Wayne”

It was inevitable that the lad was going to be given a less-than-warm welcome on his return to Goodison, but what did he expect? A warm round of applause followed by a cheery chorus of “For he is a jolly good fellow”? His reaction when he scored that goal gifted to him by Joseph Yobo was a sickner, sliding on his knees towards the crowd as if he had scored the winning goal in the World Cup Final. Still, and I have to be honest I sort of forgave him; he was an immature lad who had been getting booed everytime he went near the ball and I had rather foolishly imagined that, when he got home and watched his celebrations on TV, he regretted doing it. In my reasoning I still considered him an Evertonian at heart, and a perverse side of me still wanted the lad to do well.

Am I such a poor judge of character? The badge-kissing episode on Wednesday night was uncalled for. Yes, the lad was getting stick, but to blatantly stick the proverbial two fingers up to people who just a few years ago chanted his name with such verve and pride was a step too far. If you are angry at the club, Wayne, then stick your tongue out to Bill Kenwright or stand on David Moyse’s toes. But don’t take it out on the fans who committed so much emotional expectation in your direction.

In my eyes, Wednesday night was the night that Wayne ceased to be an Evertonian. Enjoy your time in the Theatre of screams, Wayne; don’t forget to close your ears when they sing “We hate scousers” The don’t mean you, just us real fans who will be forever blue.

Responses:

I truly enjoyed reading that article, primarily because it sums up what a lot of Evertonians feel about Rooney. Deep down we all hope he's one day going public saying he's returning to play for Everton. Now, that might very well never happen, but that's almost beside the point now. We all hope we will return to the glory days of the mid eighties and Rooney would have been the centre piece of that puzzle. Needless to say, it would have been a totally different kind of puzzle compared the RS puzzle...
Hokie Hansson

Couldn't agree with you more. Well written piece mate.

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