Toffee TV's Interview with Wayne Rooney

He then said to his agent that, if he's going to have to leave, then he should at least have a say in where he ends up going, because he didn't want to play for Chelsea.

The real fucking Judas played the people like fools. He put it all on the kid, sold him, kept Everton, made a fortune, stayed on as chairman, and has presided over the longest barren spell in the club's history. What a fucking player.

Around 20 minutes, I was back at Elland Road for a moment, sitting on the side amongst the Leeds fans, and getting a birds-eye view of the Evertonians going absolutely berserk.

I remember coming out of Old Trafford when he came on as a sub, and Man Utd scored three late goals, and I started talking to a sensible United fan.

"You have had it hard for a few years now," he said, "but at least you've got that kid to look forward to now. Did you see the way he's just tried to go right through Beckham? He's a proper little scouser, him, mate, he doesn't give a fuck for anyone, it was a pleasure watching him tonight."

It didn't take long for that United fan to get the pleasure of watching Rooney full time, whilst we got stuck with our saviour, the greatest Evertonian alive, the bastard who lead Everton to managed decline, and made an absolute fortune in the process.

Selling Rooney without a fight gave a skint Bill Kenwright, loads of breathing space, and it wasn't long before we were on the road to becoming "plucky little Everton". Heartbreaking, truly fucking heartbreaking. Rooney should have been our real saviour – although it's obvious that the actor could also play a great game.

Kenwright was never skint, he just didn't like spending his own money. He had no qualms about spending Mr Moshiri's money… or was it Mr Usmanov's?

If it was Mr Usmanov's, he might come asking for it back one day… Imagine that, they can be rough, these billionaires, if someone messes up with their money. He knows where you live, Bill!!

Sounds like you hate the bastard Kenwright almost as much as me. Fair play, like!!

It’s very telling what Rooney says and I’ve heard it all before but people should take note. The squad was crap thanks to years of underinvestment and then we got peak Kenwright managing the expectations down to zero.

This is what killed Everton. This is why the players now couldn’t give a fuck cos there isn’t a fuck to give. You could spend a billion but it wouldn’t matter one fucking bit because, until you install some pride and something to play for along with a strategy to make the club leaders once again, nothing will change.

Kenwright and his awful acolytes should be run out of the club.

Another grim interview reminder of all our mismanagement down the years. That being said, I think it's a bit off for Rooney to describe former teammates as "crap" while he and many of them are still active in the game as coaches, managers etc. You never know when he might cross paths with one.

In the old days, people used to wait until they were in their 70s or 80s before taking the "tell all" avenue.

What are the key points he makes?

I remember being in the Street End in a game v Middlesbrough when we were 2-0 down. The ball was cleared up to him from our defence and he was running towards us all on his own being caught by some defenders. He looked around in disgust for his missing team mates and just had a speculative 25-yarder over the bar. He waved his arms in despair.

I thought then that he was far too good for us and would be sold.

A guest of Bill Kenwright’s once confirmed to me on a train, when I was going to watch Everton at Goodison, that Bill didn’t want to sell, he just wanted investment, and it was investment that he eventually got.

One of Paul the Esk’s tweets has just come up on the Everton page, saying Moshiri stands to lose over £500 million, whilst Kenwright has made around £40 million. He definitely picked the wrong investors though, because the yanks, who invested into our neighbours, stand to make £3 Billion. Could you imagine if those Yanks, would have let Kenwright continue? Me neither.

Moshiri must rue the day he met slippery Bill. It has to keep him awake at night. Soft twat.

Did his arl fella never tell him not to put his bollocks into a viper's nest?

Mina has worked incredibly hard and done all he can to be fit but his body just can’t handle it – felt sorry for him.

Rodriguez was desperate to stay and wanted to play in front of fans at Goodison. His attitude was first class and he even wanted to return.

Brands was very knowledgable and respected but had to let Ancelotti dictate player purchases because of his status in the game.

Carlo was amazing with him - showed him a lot of respect and invited him to Madrid as a special guest to meet the players etc.

Lots of other interesting stuff….

Moshiri was the man who just kept on giving, egged on by Kenwright the player, who was all over the fact that the Iranian loved being praised.

Hopefully Farhad sells and takes away from Bill Kenwright the chance to be a part of the opening of the new Everton Stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock, which is incidentally the only successful thing that has happened at Everton under his very long and sickeningly tedious tenure, imo.

I know he's had controversy, but he's lived his life in the spotlight since at least 16. Earlier on the Merseyside scene. But he seems to remain pretty humble. Macdonald's breakfast followed by beans on toast before a match!! Looks like he's still on the Mackies.

A sad reflection that, even as a teenager, he realised he was better and too good for the first-team players he had grew up watching. Too many of the players were not good enough. How long have we been saying that?

He played with attitude, aggression and arrogance as well as his ability. It wasn't mentioned, but the goal that summed up Rooney for me was one for Man Utd against Newcastle. Pissed off, chasing and shouting at the Ref, suddenly spots the ball and angrily smashes it into the net with venom.

I said at the time, I wish he'd have signed a new contract and given us another 2 years. It's easy for us supporters to slate the player, but clearly the club and agent had other plans and, as is often the case in those situations, Everton get seen off in terms of Market Value.

It's clear that Everton never left him. It never can. Nice and genuine comments about his feelings after the 2016 semi-final. And I liked the fact that when he scored that goal against Leeds and there was a mini pitch invasion, several of his mates were on the pitch!!

I hope you truly realise I respect your input but on Rooney speaking, erm, "plainly" about the mundanity at best of the squad he was in, I think you're wrong.

Charlatans like Kenwright depend for survival on the "omerta" so prevalent among those former employees who go on to pontificate without blame on all things football. All sections of the media are entirely stuffed with them. Savvy critics such as Big Nev, Reidy, Ratters etc etc are afforded no public platform. And Kenwright (and other shysters) delights in this. It's his protection to the world beyond our Goodison faithful.

Thus far, Rooney seems different. Gawd knows what he's going to say in Part 2 but he'll have to speil on a Byronic level to get close to the insight so many of us TWers have stated for decades, and counting.

I don’t disagree that the team was crap obviously and agree on Nev etc. But I was more thinking in terms of old team mates like Stubbs and Weir working as coaches and now their players will be sniggering thinking “Who’s this crappy old player to tell me what to do.”

Not to mention what the players below Wayne Rooney standard at DC United must be thinking!

As good a career as Wayne Rooney had, I personally still don't think he hit the heights that he could have done. He was better than Ronaldo, and could have been compared to Messi, imo, but he went to Man Utd and started to become a team player, and was also often played out of position, by Alex Ferguson.

I preferred him when he done that little bit more for himself, although I still think that United fan got lucky.

For many well-publicised reasons, he never hit the heights he could have done. Which sounds a ridiculous statement when you consider his medal count and status in the game. But yes, he could have been even better.

As for Stubbs and Weir, I wish we'd have got Stubbs earlier when he left Bolton for Celtic. There was always the link. I liked both of them. Experience and leadership as well as being very good defenders and organisers.

One thing I remember about Stubbs was that occasional daisy-cutter bullet of a free kick he had up his sleeve. The type of shot that is the reason a lot of teams have a player lying on the turf behind the wall a lot now.

Good examples of how you can have players of an older age at centre-back as it is an area of the pitch that arguably requires wisdom, experience and reading of the game. Pace helps, but if they can anticipate, it works. Dare I say, there was a former boyhood Evertonian from Bootle who is now an irritating pundit who was good at it.

When Stubbs left Everton, allegedly over a clause in his contract relating to a previous illness, Everton struggled badly, and it was only when he came back from Sunderland a few months later that our season finally got going.

Stubbs got a lot of stick over Rooney, but maybe he was on the kid’s side, because he was aware of what Kenwright was forcing onto him?

All guesswork on my part, but maybe this is why Kenwright wanted a clause put into Stubbs's next contract? But maybe I’m just playing the ‘Devil's Advocate’ because I don’t like or trust Bill Kenwright one iota!

Gary Neville has a show on Sky where he sits in a little studio with a big screen in front of him (like being in a mini picture house) and he did one with Wayne Rooney, going over all the great goals he had scored in his career. I don’t tell people to watch much (but I wouldn’t mind a few Netflix recommendations, if anyone has got any) but anyone who gets a chance to watch this will realize how open and very astute Rooney becomes when he talks about himself and football. It’s still not nice watching him in Man Utd colours but it really is a brilliant show for football lovers and comes very highly recommend from me!!!

Sickening to think what we lost without a fight, and even more sickening to think that the only fight shown was the snide way our owners went about trying to get rid of a 17-year-old kid.

Tried to sell him to a club he had no interest in joining behind his back, before eventually making him put in a transfer request. Evertonians were robbed the minute the decision was made from someone within the club that they had to sell Wayne Rooney.

It was absolutely sickening that we sold one of the best players that this country has arguably ever produced at the age of 17 years, Mr Kenwright. We sold a great to keep a snide – a man that many people say has only got Everton's best interests at heart... 🤮