Wednesday 26 November 2008

Respect And How Not To Earn It, Rooney Style.


We're well into November and with it, were seeing sides well bedded in and we've already seen our share of big matches in both the premiership and in the championship.

The other week when I was at home, it was the turn of Everton to entertain Manchester United at Goodison. Always a tasty fixture, this one proved to be no exception, thanks largely to the immature actions of the player that was once championed as the future of Everton FC. I remember speaking to my uncle when Rooney was just 12 and he was singing the boys name and telling me how he was the future of Everton etc etc.. I wonder; if I asked him today what he thought of the player-come turncoat, whether his answer would be complimentary. In fact, I wouldn't need to, his view is one shared by most Evertonians following Rooney's defection along the M62. That of embarrassment.

Listening to the match on the radio, Darren Fletcher split the Everton centre half's and slotted home. One-nil to the Mancs...but it wasn't just a goal, it got personal. Wayne Rooney, in front of the Gladwys Street faithful celebrated this goal by kissing the Manchester United badge and in doing establishing himself as one of the biggest twats in Merseyside's footballing history. Here was a Scouser, a lad born and bred in LIVERPOOL celebrating a goal against the club that made him who he was by kicking 40,000 people in the bollocks and kissing the badge of his new club and arch-rivals....

Listening to the call in following the match, there was consensus among the pundits and callers that Rooney was a complete and utter disgrace, to himself, to his family and to Liverpool as a city. I understand that he endured hell as he moved to Manchester United, but too be honest, it was one of the most controversial transfers in the last 30 years, and football in Liverpool is taken very seriously, probably too seriously if I'm honest with myself, and there were some shocking things said following his departure, many of which were said with emotion running high following the departure of the biggest talent in English football to an arch-rival and all this after him telling everyone that he was "once a blue, always a blue”.

I just couldn't understand why he'd bother to do something so stupid? And to piss off so many people? He's not a kid, he's a grown man, an adult, a role model (apparently)...but the one thing I don't think he is, is a Scouser. He may have been born within the city limits, and he might sound like a Scouser, but he lost all credit with me and with many Scousers following the videos on the internet and in the press of him singing "build a bonfire and put a Scouser at the top" alongside Gary Neville at a Manure Christmas party..."what a twat" I thought at the time and since, he's done nothing to change my opinion. In fact, he's just worked hard to cement himself as a twat and the badge-kissing in front of the Gladwys was just another incident in a long line that highlight everything that’s wrong with our society. Its no wonder the FA have to launch “respect the referee campaigns” when we have players like Rooney around, his actions on the pitch are appalling, insulting and unfortunately it doesn't look like a situation due to change any time soon.... well, not given Rooney's latest stunt.

Sadly, I also think the damage he has caused between himself and the people of the city is irreparable; I for one wouldn't have anything nice to say about him, and therefore using the morals and values that I were taught as a child, just wouldn't say anything at all.

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