The Hindu : Sport : Looking inside Wayne Rooney's head

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 04, 2006

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Looking inside Wayne Rooney's head

Daniel Taylor

He needs to introspect rather than blame Ronaldo

Baden-Baden: Football in the 21st century is an industry where managers have the technology to know the exact distance a player has covered in a match, the speed at which he strikes the ball and a forensic breakdown of passes, shots, tackles and runs.

There is no computer, however, that can get inside Wayne Rooney's head and, as long as this is the case, nobody can be certain how he combines being the cleverest footballer in England while auditioning to be a dim-wit.

Rooney, as Eriksson has requested, will not need to go into hiding, as David Beckham did after France 98, nor will he find himself being described as "Public Enemy No.1" or the "most reviled man in English football." Those descriptions are being applied instead to Cristiano Ronaldo, his club-mate, Portugal's No.17 and a convenient scapegoat when the English public does not really want to fall out of love with its best footballer.

Ronaldo has so many unpleasant traits it is easy for him to be cast in a more villainous role, regardless of whether it blurs the facts. Rooney was the victim of an ambush, it is being said.

Mind games

"Football is about mind games as well," he replied, when invited to defend Rooney and criticise Ronaldo. "You can't lose to those sort of things. Really, you can't. When you play football at this level, your opponents will do anything. You have to accept it and work around it. That's the life of a professional footballer."

The message, spelt out in the politest of terms, is that Rooney needs to grow up, and fast. Where Eriksson failed, however, was by trotting out the old line about Rooney "not being the same player" if he were to curb his temper.

Rooney has become an example of a sportsman who allows himself to get so hyped up it takes him out of the zone and affects his performance. Sports psychologists call it the "catastrophe theory." Laymen might describe it as losing the plot.

Sporadic outbursts

In fairness, his outbursts have become increasingly sporadic since the days when it seemed as though there would be one flashpoint in every game. Rooney is also understood to have sought the help of an anger-management counsellor.

Behavioural problems

Part of the problem, perhaps, is that Sir Alex Ferguson's handling of players with behavioural problems seldom stretches to anything more imaginative than bawling them out, traditionally followed by a period of silence and then the arm-round-the-shoulder treatment.

The fact, though, is that in the course of 20 months, Rooney has been sent off in a World Cup quarter-final, picked up his first red card and an FA disciplinary charge for Manchester United been substituted in a friendly against Spain to save him from early dismissal and, going back to the defeat in Northern Ireland, been caught on camera on the pitch mouthing off at David Beckham in abusive terms before apparently launching into Steve McClaren in the same fashion in the dressing room.

Depressing sight

The evidence is of a man whose brains are in his boots. Certainly there has been no more depressing sight than seeing Rooney sat alone on the team coach, his knees pressed against the seat in front, waiting for his team-mates to join him on Saturday. Rooney, head bowed, ashen-faced, avoiding eye contact, had left the stadium flanked by security guards.

It should never have come to that but this combustible genius should look at himself before pointing an accusatory finger at the more streetwise Ronaldo.

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