UK Edition
The clue to Wayne Rooney’s fascinating contribution to Monday Night Football came at the end: “I’ve enjoyed tonight and I’m sure I’ll do a lot more TV work in the future,” he said, “but ultimately I want to go into management.”
In his previous appearance on live television, Rooney had been hunched in the rain at Arsenal: an unused substitute as supine Everton succumbed 5-1. In the context of Sam Allardyce, Everton’s manager, calling his team “pathetic,” it was easy to imagine Rooney scanning this rain-soaked fiasco and asking himself: ‘What am I going to do with the second-half of my life?”
Forty-eight hours later, he stood in the Sky Sports studio with Jamie Carragher and Dave Jones, suited, booted and entirely at ease under the interrogatory gaze of the cameras. As he spoke interestingly about Sir Alex Ferguson, Manchester City and Harry Kane, social media lit up with surprised delight. Rooney, who has endured a kind of social or class condescension for the whole of his working life, had abandoned what I call the “captured airman” stance of modern footballers being interviewed (‘give them name, rank and serial number - but no more.’)
To connect Everton’s wretched form directly with Rooney’s impressive punditry debut may seem a leap too far. But the comment about doing “a lot more TV work” and going into management told a story. As a rule, retirement is not too far away when top sports people start to open up in the broadcasting world. Cricket’s Jimmy Anderson is another case. Anderson’s seamless transition to Test Match Special analyst after the Ashes was his first step into a media career.
Rooney’s good display on Monday night has not been over-stated. This, for example, was his view on Harry Kane: "The problem that Tottenham are going to have is that his motivation is goals, but his motivation is going to change from goals to trophies. And if Tottenham don't win trophies in the next year, maybe two, he is going to want to move elsewhere to win trophies.”
From ‘goals-to-trophies’ might sound a simple point, but it expresses Kane’s dilemma through his own eyes, not those of Tottenham fans or commentators. Rooney’s claim that Pep Guardiola is trying to recreate Barcelona in Manchester was also sharply conveyed: “City are getting to the level Barcelona were at four or five years ago. It is not nice for me to say, but it is almost perfect football at times. Guardiola is putting the foundations in place to try to emulate that Barcelona team, and they are well on their way to doing that.”
There were some crowd-pleasing anecdotes too: the kind of tales business folk pay £500 a head to listen to at black tie dinners: of Rooney switching the rugby over to X Factor when Roy Keane left the room to get some food - and then hiding the remote when his highness returned. Also intriguing was the revelation that Ferguson would shout at Rooney at half-time when it was Nani he was really cross with. United’s manager knew Rooney could take it; Nani could not, but he would take note of the “shouting match” between those two strong personalities and return to the pitch more motivated and alert.
Rooney also told us why his United teams were “asking for trouble” trying to play silky football from the back in the first half-hour at Anfield, because Liverpool would press them high up the pitch and ignite the passions of the home crowd. Apparent throughout were two of Rooney’s greatest assets: his self-confidence (he was never scared of provoking Keane), and sense of how good he was: “I knew at 16-years-old I was the best player in the team,” he said of his first spell at Everton.
Through outside pressure (mockery, snobbery), and his own policy of concealing his real personality behind a shy, mumbling exterior, Rooney has spent the last 15 years in our huge gallery of misconceptions about who famous people really are. In company, he is entertaining, expressive and shrewd about the game and players. One of his talents is sniffing out imposters, or showboaters, in a squad, and indeed in management. Equally he stopped short of monkish dedication to the task of becoming a truly great player, at Cristiano Ronaldo’s level. His logic seemed to be that he wanted a good life as well as a grand career. Some would call that a win-win, if you overlook the drink-drive conviction and assorted social and gambling-related scrapes.
Those of us who broadly share a press area with ex-footballers of Rooney’s calibre just wish sometimes that this candour would arrive a little earlier. In fact, it is heading in the opposite direction, with many managers, especially, noticeably more indignant about perfectly fair questions. This hostility to the very idea of cross-examination is apparent across society.
Football - modern sport, really - has made many players petrified of their own voices. They live in permanent fear of making an error, or having their words distorted, which they sometimes are. This unhealthy defensiveness is both understandable and regrettable. It suppresses personality and smothers debate.
In Sky’s studio, Rooney abandoned circumspection and showed his real self, partly as a career move. And the public liked this ‘new’ Wazza - who was there all along, hiding in plain sight.
Gatland is pressing right psychological buttons for Wales
The unfamiliarity of Wales’ line-up was no barrier to them thrashing Scotland 34-7, with the result that Welsh rugby suddenly seemed packed with emerging talent. It may well be, but you can bet your house Warren Gatland would have liked all this household names back for the much tougher test at Twickenham on Saturday.
Canny as he is, Gatland named an unchanged side for the England game as a declaration of confidence. “The players deserve that for a very good performance on the opening weekend,” he said. But he had little choice. Gatland is pressing the right psychological buttons in the hope that Josh Adams (one cap), Hadleigh Parkes (two), Steff Evans (six) and Rhys Patchell (six) can take the next leap after a superb win over Scotland, which showed how influential new players can be with the right tactics and permission to express themselves.
To draw such a fine performance too from Leigh Halfpenny, who was written off by some, was another sign of Gatland’s man management skill. But now these graduates, or stand-ins, depending on your view, have a much bigger river to cross. In Cardiff, it should be said, none looked over-promoted or ripe for devouring at Twickenham.
Football has made many players petrified of own voices - but Wayne Rooney abandoned circumspection and showed real self on Sky