That debut! Well, you must be wondering which specific debut I’m on as there’s been thousands, millions even, in football. There’s only one football debut that has ever caught my imagination – Wayne Rooney’s debut for Manchester United at Old Trafford on that Champions League night in 2004. His eventual transfer from Everton having dragged dramatically, his first appearance in the United shirt was anticipated with bated breath. He was just 17 then. Could he deliver? Well, he blew the roof against Fenerbahce. It was a sensational performance highlighted by that magical hat trick, capped off by a glorious free kick. Old Trafford was buzzing, the commentators ran short of words and the football world was awestruck. When eventually one of the commentators found the words, he said (and I’ll never forget) “…give him the stage, and Wayne Rooney will perform”.
That’s what I’m on here. Now 9 years later and the man who signed him has publicly stated that Rooney wants to leave United. Of course given that the assertion is by Sir Alex Ferguson, there has to be some truth in it. A player of Rooney’s caliber wouldn’t lack suitors whenever it is signaled that he’s available for a move. And of course, following these developments, it has been widely reported that a string of top European clubs would be particularly interested in the Englishman. European Champions, Bayern Munich, the moneybags trio of Paris St. Germain, Monaco and Chelsea. Then, there’s Arsenal.
It is indeed baffling that Arsenal is mentioned in the same breath as these others. As much as the North London giants command an undisputed big team status, buying marquee players like Wayne who would command astronomical transfer fees and wages isn’t something they are particularly known for. Yet after completing an eighth trophyless year albeit squeaking through to a Top 4 finish guaranteeing Champions League football, there’s a growing need for the club to set things right and change direction to be able to have a realistic shot at the league title. To achieve that of course it is common knowledge that Arsenal has to change tact in their transfer dealings to get the big name players that otherwise they wouldn’t even look at. Hence, the constant mooting of Rooney’s name.
Does Arsenal need Wayne Rooney. Absolutely. They’ve lacked a consistent and feared goal threat since former Captain Robin Van Persie went to join Rooney’s side. Olivier Giroud and Lukas Podolski were brought in to share the responsibility of leading the attack and scoring the goals, but they have been weighed on the goal-scales and been found wanting. Granted, it was only their first season in English football, but football has become a very unforgiving business and life is too short to harbor and lean on sentiment incessantly. Rooney on the other hand for a decade now has been one of the best performing Premier League players season after season. So yes, Arsenal does need this man Wayne, if they are finally to push the other major clubs for the title.
There’s overall skepticism about this kind of deal, and rightly so. Manchester United and Arsenal traditionally don’t do player business – at least I’ve grown up knowing that. But pause a little, didn’t United spend some millions after successfully negotiating for Arsenal’s want away striker, Van Persie? Who saw that one coming? So why not Rooney moving to the opposite direction this time round? One factor that may have been an impediment to this deal coming to fruition is the now former United manager, Sir Alex. We all know he’s not as sufficiently philanthropic to other rival clubs when it comes to his prized assets quite like Arsene Wenger has become recently. He’s now out of the picture, at least in terms of player negotiations. So should Wenger kick start the haggling process, he will instead come up against David Moyes, who’s also a tough negotiator, but he’s no Fergie.
At the moment, Arsenal’s highest earners are Theo Walcott and Podolski who are both alleged to be pocketing sums in the region of £100,000+ per week. At United Rooney currently earns over £200,000 in weekly wages. In the past Arsenal hasn’t shown any willingness to radically alter their wage structure to accommodate players earning wages in Rooney’s category. Can they bow to him on this regard? Can they dance to his tune? Well, word has it that at least according to Arsenal CEO Ivan Gazidis, the club’s financial standing is sound and healthy enough to bear the weight of Rooney’s demands. He’s the man in charge of the club coffers, you know, so when he says ‘relax, we good’, you’ve got to believe him. In terms of the actual transfer fees, how do things look? It’s being widely quoted that Rooney would command a price of roughly £25-30million, considering he’s got two years left on his contract. Arsenal has never paid more than the £15million they paid Zenit in 2009 for the departing Andrey Arshavin, so it makes you wonder whether them meeting such an asking price has any shred of realism in it. With reported lucrative sponsorship deals signed with Emirates Airlines and Puma, of which the proceeds of some are available, the club apparently commands a £70million transfer ‘war chest’. That should do the trick, don’t you think?
What would motivate Rooney to come to the Emirates anyway? Ultimately that’s the most important question in all this quagmire. For starters, this ended season it would seem that Rooney has been rather shoved away a bit from the first choice team by Van Persie. And even when they’ve played together, he has been the one to sacrifice the centre forward role in favor of the Flying Dutchman. Obviously Robin is the bigger eagle in the Old Trafford nest and logically, Rooney would wish to fly out in search of his own nest. There’s also the small matter that Rooney and new United boss Moyes weren’t the best of friends when striker left him at Everton those many years ago. And Rooney had some choice words for the Glaswegian in his auto-biography sometime back. In short they have a history. Can they put all of that behind them and work together especially when even before Moyes’ arrival, Rooney had voiced his desire to walk away?
Wayne has won everything he could possibly win at United, so there’s all wisdom in him seeking a new challenge. A move to Arsenal would be opting for the unconventional but then again, he’d command all the attention. At Arsenal he would be the main man, not second in command. He’d play in front of the Emirates faithful who definitely would want to scream their voice hoarse for him if just to get one over United and have the last laugh regarding the VanPersie saga of a year ago. He’ll play with Theo and Alex Oxlade Chamberlain, in an attack that could be the same one lining up for England at Rio in a year. He’ll be at the end of Jack Wilshere and Santiago Cazorla’s sublime defense-splitting passes. He will join Walcott, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Wishere, Aaron Ramsey, Kieran Gibbs and Carl Jenkinson as one of the hottest septuplets in European football, Arsenal’s ‘British Core’. And finally, Rooney has the chance to be the one credited with firing the rusty cannon to glory once again. The move in itself surely wouldn’t be sort of motivation and challenge for the Liverpool native.
For all it’s worth, this could end up being nothing more than just wishful thinking bordering desperation to create a false sense of excitement…but also there’s some small, small chance that it could be a reality. As much as it could be just a dream, dreams come true. Without that possibility, nature would not incite us to have them. Hoping that in some weeks to come, we’ll be singing ‘Over the Moon, we’ve got the Roon!’
The Dug Out 