Rooney: Ask Everton why I left Goodison Park

For reasons unknown to many, he allowed our best goal scorer to leave on the cheap and failed to find a replacement of any stature. Instead, he brought in someone who could not hold down a berth in another Premier League club we would seek to emulate in terms of recent success.

He gave massive wages to those coming in and Mr Rooney in particular, then brought himself and the Club into the press with off-the-field behaviour unbecoming of a sports star supposedly setting an example to young players. I could go on.

I'm unhappy in my job in the NHS and my salary, but I have to keep on going (we all do). My friend is currently doing 12-hour shifts on Winter Hill (he's in the fire service). I live in a small 3 bed semi while Mr Rooney will no doubt be enjoying the riches of a huge American Mansion.

I never wanted him back, and hopefully he will just leave Everton alone. The Kenwright regime has been one of the most damaging in the clubs history.

Let's focus as a club and supporters on the present and the future and the players still at the club, or (hopefully!) new faces still to arrive.

I think it’s best he left. All the best to the lad. I hope he enjoys what left of his career.

I wish Rooney was still with us, even in a smaller role, but I guess there are mitigating circumstances for why he left. I'm thinking he wanted certain guarantees regarding playing time that we couldn't give and the club wanted to save on his wages.

Just seems a shame. Totally wasted in the US. [Folds up Rooney 10 Everton shirt and puts in wardrobe.]

Never was the sharpest tool in the box our Wayne was he.

Mind you, we brought him back once before, so who knows.

Also I believe he did NOT take a pay cut as Man Utd were still paying half his salary. Everton were ‘only' paying the poor lad £150k/week, Man Utdu also £150k.

Never should have been offered the chance to come back and I still think it's one of the main reasons last season went off the rails as Rooney was not Koeman's choice.

Anyway, time to move one. Who's next out?

Every dog has their day – enjoy the retirement league.

“I’m bollocksed. Can’t hack the pace. I’m off to the USA on an unbelievable contract. But I’d just like to keep my Evertonian credentials vaguely alive, somehow they still linger in the eyes of some fans, so give them a little flutter of ‘the club has let me down’ “.

Utter bullshit.

Its' far from perfect, agreed. But please don't pretend that the club was perfect until Kenwright invested.

One of the reasons I don't comment more is that there is rarely a balanced view in comments (articles are almost always balanced).

Point in case: Kenwright is blamed for all that goes wrong (Rooney coming back, for example). Moshiri gets all the credit when things go alright.

For me, Kenwright's done more to earn my trust that Moshiri has, but in reality, they should be both we equally accountable, for better or worse.

Saying that Blue Bill may be gone by then?

Sell your stake and fuck off now, Bill lad!

Rooney wasn't the only one “blowing out of his arse” after half an hour — try the whole squad!

When no matter how hard you try to educate our fans that Kenwright is a living, active parasite cum spanner-in-the-works of the momentum integrity and progression of our club when large numbers of slap-brained fuckworths still call him 'Blue Bill', and hire planes with banners to perpetuate his dishonourable, nay, even ongoing legacy.

A shambles and a stain I hope will soon be eradicated from the annals of our recent and diabolically appalling pecuniary past.

Come the dawn, I say.

Super.

Move on, we're not making "teary-Bill" business decisions any longer.

Nothing to see here. Thank you Wayne, I appreciate you didn't want to leave and love the Club, but it's time for you to move on.

You see, we have an elephant-sized payroll currently that needs a little trimming.

Good luck in the USA. I might go north and watch you play.

Luckily he was able to get a transfer to Buzzard Point as a result of this generosity from Everton and will continue to earn a professional footballer's wage above what he is worth,

With an attitude like that, is he real coaching material for a return to Everton? I think not and good riddance. Bill Kenwright isn't blameless either.

Like taking back an ex who dumped you just so you can dump her?

Touché Wayne.

Getting rid of a player who was finished as a top player 5 seasons ago at Man Utd should be be seen as sign that the club are serious about moving to the next level. There's a few others who are not good enough also but This will do for starters.

And Paul Ellam #12, I feel exactly the same. Not every player is an idiot in the mould of Neymar (and yes, I would say that to his face) but the modern professional game always has that lingering whiff of entitlement, which tends to be the catalyst for players' attitudes and thus our indignation at being taken for a ride.

I appreciate this is a Rooney thread, however, as you mentioned it: "...until Kenwright invested."

Invested what?

Don't worry, you can come back as a coach whenever you want cos Everton are just that nice.

He might have had his limitations but he was one of our better players in the first half of the season.

I wanted him to stay to see out his contract as I still think he offerred something. In a season where the commitment of some players was questioned, Tosun's comments on Rooney actually show that he actually cared, was committed to us in training and was desperate to win games.
Now he has gone we move on but there are other players you'd want to ship out ahead of Wayne and Funes so let's hope there is a proper clear out of all the deadwood.

The true impact of Everton's net spend revealed - and what it means for this season

I agree, because they earn so much money, some (not all) players develop an attitude of entitlement. Their football suffers as a result. Rooney had this aura about him and so has most of the England team.

It's not helped by the media who project every goal they score as if they could only score it. Harry Kane, hopefully for England fans, has his feet on the ground, because he is getting pumped up like Mrs Puff in Spongebob Square Pants.

When Rooney's skill and earning power are gone, he is going to find it difficult. At the moment, he can't see himself. The people who appear to be listening to him now, giving him credence, will disappear like snow off a ditch. Hopefully Everton in their generosity of allowing him a go at being a media pundit, will be a lifeline,

Everton have been very good to Rooney and hopefully he will come to realise that, sooner rather than later. Most fans would wish him good luck in America, though we do sympathise that he will be knackered in the hot sun most of the time and Buzzard Point is going to ruin Coleen's health, which might cause her to stay in England. The media in Washington will be watching him like a hawk.

You beat me to it!!

Joe (#21),

Didn't Johnson build the Park End and win us a cup?

If you could give me something tangible Kenwright has given us, please!!

A second-rate attempt at best. The only thing in its favour are the lack of obscured view seats, but after last season, they would sell at a premium.

A magnificent Empire built of butterfly wings, angel dust and held together with the tears of a Unicorn.

Don't have me down as a fan of Kenwright, I am just pointing out that our owners, historically, have been less than worthy of the club and its fans.

Amazing as it may sound, even we don't want a sub who is on £150k per week.

Next season would have been like watching a drunken, overweight grandad at a wedding, hitting the dance floor to demonstrate to the youngsters how he used to be a dab hand at the limbo.

A genuine question out of genuine curiosity:

Is your hatred for Kenwright built on what you've read, heard/learned through media or have you been privvy to information from the club or those connected to the club?

Well Everton want to better themselves this season, and so we need to get fitter, younger players. IF you could have looked after yourself, you could have stayed.. but you didn't.. and your performances weren't worthy of the club you "love" or the salary you earn.

And before anyone says, yes... but he could be a role model for the other young players.... I think his off field behaviour and training has been discussed at length here.

Jog on...

But if I were Wayne I'd feel let down. Twice he played for his boyhood club – and twice they were more than a mess. And twice he finished as top scorer despite being a kid the first time and over the hill the second time. That's if I were Wayne. I'd be thinking it could have been good if only the club could bring something to the party. And twice he got criticised when he left – once as a traitor, once as a burden removed. Doesn't quite seem fair does it?

I felt let down that Everton bought Rooney back. It was a massive step backwards in my view. Couple that with the rediculous othet purchases...

We no longer sign great players, and if we do produce a quality player like Rooney was, then they are taken away very quickly. I wish Marco Silva all the very best in trying to turn this club around, to again compete for trophies. I really don't see how we can break into the top 6 never mind a Champions League place. Both Arsenal and Chelsea with new managers will improve their teams to again compete for a Champions League spot, plus both will use the Europa league for their second string. So the League Cup or the FA Cup look the only likely trophy we can win. Although, despite many claiming the top clubs aren't interested in these trophies, it's amazing how these clubs seem still to dominate these Cups.

I'm no fan of Bill, but Rooney's return was on the watch of Koeman, Moshiri and Walsh. Rooney isn't happy but he isn't a player who can cut it at the top level anymore, going out on the piss won't have helped. It was worth a punt, it didn't work out so the club have cut its losses.

He left us when he thought we weren't good enough for him, and now he's not good enough for us we have moved him on.

Unlucky Wayne, such is life.

"Once a blue, always a blue" — my arse, he used our club like an oil rag twice now. Onwards and Upwards, this is a win-win for both the club and fans alike

Now if Kenwright can kindly fuck off, I will face the new season and the future with renewed optimism and will have less fear we will be butt-fucked by Man Utd at will from now on.

ps: Being fat and out of shape and going on the piss and getting behind the wheel of your car says you don't give a fuck. I said at time of his signing, I fit my jersey better than him, and that's saying something. In defence of Koeman, I would be amazed if this wasn't foisted on him by the teary-eyed fantasist who has plagued this club for decades now.

Step forward, Mr Sigurdsson.

After the game against Atalanta back in November, I bumped into a guy I know on the commercial side at Everton. I have known him for 12 years and he has never given me a single nugget of inside info in all that time. However, that night, probably due to the frustration felt by us all after such a mauling, he confided in me that politics and incompetence were rife at L4.

He also said that Koeman was against Rooney's return to Everton and that he had been effectively overruled by Kenwright and therefore Moshiri by default. He believed that Koeman lost interest in his job immediately Rooney returned, and waited for the inevitable pay-off.

He also told me that evening that Joe Royle was extremely upset at the way David Unsworth had been treated and that he was not in the running for the role of coach. Joe Royle resigned a week after Sam Allardyce was appointed.

Now I do realise that we have to take these hearsay reports with a pinch of salt but my contact is not given to spouting bullshit and his version of the Rooney events did seem plausible at the time and very Kenwright-esque... not much value in this, I know, but it might just explain a few things on the Rooney front.

It looked to me that Koeman very much wanted Wayne. I believed Koeman's ego was such that he thought he could just change everything and slot things into place and crack the top 6 on account of him being a tactical genius.

I don't know, obviously, but there were a lot of us at the time questioning the wisdom in signing numerous No 10s and Koeman does have history where pay-offs are concered!

I do not base my judgement on international caps by the way as you will have worked out although I ponder to this day how players like Emlyn Hughes and Carlton Palmer have more than Colin.

Just watching the best Premier League goals of 2013-14 and the kid scored some absolute belters, just a shame he could never find consistency, and I would be very surprised if he ever does this with Chelsea...

Sign young players, get them ultra fit and create a great team spirit.

Get rid of all the old deadwood and offload the players who should never have donned the famous blue shirt.

Any chance of some talent in soon, please...

Agreed. It's a concern to ponder how it may all be structured. Great vulnerability with great debt.

Some people are critical and bitter because he left us. He was young and ambitious... and, let's be honest, he could not have challenged for major honours at that time, as our club just wasn't capable. The same people are demanding that our club be business-like and ambitious, yet you castigate Rooney for that?

May I remind you that he was also the top goal scorer, but then you all know that, though you never allude to it. If you have ever played a team sport, you will know that it is impossible to play well on your own. No player comes out of last season with much credit in terms of playing well. They were ALL below par last season.

Accusations of him being permanently 'on the lash', not training hard, and eating crap are things I have read in these comments. So, you are out drinking with him, watch every training session, and are at his house at mealtimes, are you? Unless you know these things for an absolute fact, perhaps comments such as these should not be made on an Everton website.

He was found out – just one occasion – for drinking and driving which I agree is unforgiveable, but that alone does not mean he is a complete and utter piss-head.

Whether you think he can still contribute positively on the pitch is an individual opinion, but to read some of the comments on here, with personal unfounded criticism, disappoints me hugely.

The club could have been capable. It was just the board who weren't.

Record incomes in the history of the Premier League and yet we were being run like Tranmere... No ambition — just self-fulfillment.

I am also of the view that Koeman threw the towel in because of interference by Kenwright.

It certainly wasn't Koeman who agreed to let Lukaku off the last 2 years of his contract and sign Rooney instead of a top notch goalscorer which Koeman was screaming out for right up to the end of the transfer window.

I know he said publicly what a good player Rooney was but what else could he say?

Even though Big Sam was a disaster you could probably argue that his two buys were better than many of Koeman’s 2nd season buys. Tousn & Walcott v Keane, Vlasic, Martina, Klaassen, Sandro, Rooney.

Pickford and Sigurdsson (to a lesser degree) his saving grace.

You asked me the question about Rooney being the greatest player this club produced, and then suggested both Dean and Ball would be ahead of him. We didnt produce Ball who was not only an England International before we signed him and a World Cup winner, so can hardly claim we produced him. And Dixie started his career at Tranmere so again we can hardly claim we produced Dixie.

Rooney is at present Englands leading scorer, and when you think of some of the great players that have played for England thats no mean feet. H e also holds the record at Man Utd despite all the great players they have had.
So I absolutely say he was the greatest player this club has ever produced, in fact I would say he is the best player that Merseyside has ever produced and that includes Gerrard who never ever won a league title. I agree that in a poll he probably wouldnt be in the top 10 most popular players to play for this club, but thats a different argument.

I wasn't a fan of Johnson and was pointing that even he built a stand and won a cup.

We are into semantics here. We can't claim we produced Dixie and Alan Ball. So how far back do you want to go back in our production of Rooney? Wayne is, sorry, was, a fine player. He is a Man Utd legend — not an Everton one.

Rooney's people did not want to see their man show up at Everton with no transfer being paid so it was all done to make it look like Everton paid a fee when in fact no money changed hands.

Strictly in football terms, you have raised a debatable point. We have had many fine players, comparable to Rooney in football terms. They have other qualities which, in my view, contribute to greatness.

Class and integrity.

Easy to criticise when not in the seat. Corbynistic style protest politics; slag off those in charge in the safety of never having to be there yourself.

As for the support base expecting to be quiet and reverential in such circumstances, John Moores's view was that we were entitled to do so when things were wrong. Given most of us would welcome stewardship of the club in his mould currently, that will do for me. He would never have stood for second best being good enough, like the Kenwright regime has.

Ball, Dean, Southall and a host of others are far ahead of Wayne in the list of all-time Everton greats. Rooney will always be a Manchester United great as he won trophies with them and is their record goalscorer, likewise he will remain an England great given his goal haul for the national side.

Some argue that selling Wayne saved the club and they do have a point, but I will always argue that losing Wayne in 2004, no matter the circumstances, put Everton Football Club firmly into the bracket of also-rans — which we have since occupied with alarming regularity.

Everton had sold star players previously for financial reasons but, when Wayne left for Man Utd, it took something from the Everton soul and I don't think we've quite recovered from it as a club.

No matter what Marsh or Johnson did or didn't do, it is painfully obvious that Kenwright was only ever out for himself and almost ran Everton into the ground in his self-fulfilment. He has now made himself millions while never putting one penny of his own money into the club.

Can you seriously say that anyone who involved Greene and Earl in the control of the club and pathologically lied about Goodison Park and the need to move to Kirkby so he and his cronies could line their pockets has Everton's best interests at heart?

He should have been run out of the club over Kings Dock which he lied about for 2 years saying the money was ring-fenced and then refusing to resign as chairman when Paul Gregg offered to fund Kings Dock if he did.

You and Joe have very short memories of this egotistical megalomaniac.