The sky was a pale blue wintry over Old Trafford yesterday, which seemed apt. For the news had come out of blue to most Manchester United fans that Wayne Rooney, who was named Footballer of the Year last season, had announced that he wants to leave the club.<\/p>\n
The place was in shock, but few doubted it would happen. Street traders outside the ground had already discounted scarves proclaiming \u201cWayne Rooney \u2013 The White Pele\u201d to just half price. Inside the United Megastore two customers were returning shirts bearing the player\u2019s name. \u201cI\u2019ll have a Chicharito one instead,\u201d one man said glumly.<\/p>\n
So unexpected was the news that most United staff only heard it yesterday morning. \u201cIt has been a complete shock to lots of people inside the club,\u201d one insider said.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cThe overwhelming reaction is sheer disappointment,\u201d said one of the licensed street traders, John Speed, 40, a lifelong United fan clad in the green-and-gold scarf of the fans\u2019 protest movement which wants to force the club\u2019s owners, the Glazer family, to leave. The Glazers have burdened what was once the world\u2019s richest club with debts of \u00a3700 million.<\/p>\n
One of the whirligig of theories spinning around the place was that Rooney wanted to leave because he was disappointed that such huge debts meant that United had not bought any top class players to replace Cristiano Ronaldo whom they sold to Real Madrid, 18 months ago, for a record \u00a380m.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat most fans are wanting is some kind of explanation from Rooney,\u201d said the scarf-seller, \u201cas to what has made him completely change his mind from saying he wanted to \u201cstay for life\u201d to announcing \u201cI\u2019m adamant I want to leave\u201d over a period of weeks rather than months.<\/p>\n
Theories abounded, about rows with the manager, chimerical injuries, demands from Rooney\u2019s wife Colleen after press reports that he had been using prostitutes again, and more. Many were held in the teeth of Sir Alex Ferguson\u2019s revelation that Rooney had announced he would not renew his contract as long ago as August 14th. But why let facts spoil a good theory.<\/p>\n
There was fertile ground too for disagreement about whether Rooney has been off form. Or not trying. Or has had too much on his mind to concentrate on his game.<\/p>\n
The big rumour was that Rooney wants to move down the Mancunian way to Eastlands, the home of United\u2019s great rivals Manchester City. \u201cI\u2019d love him to come,\u201d said a gleeful City fan, Anthony Marshall, 48, who could offer no convincing explanation as to what he was doing outside the United ground, grinning broadly. \u201cBut they\u2019d be silly to sell him to another Premiership club.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dark clouds had moved over the stadium and the heavens opened as if in disapproval. \u201cI don\u2019t think the truth has come out yet,\u201d said a United fan, Steve Wilson. \u201cIt\u2019s sad to see the impact that money and greed is having on the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
The street traders put up giant umbrellas. \u201cI\u2019ve just ordered new supplies of the green-and-gold,\u201d said John Speed. \u201cI think the protest movement will swell now, especially if Rooney makes it clear that he is leaving because of the club\u2019s lack of investment in new players. He doesn\u2019t have to say anything. All he has to do is pick a green-and-gold scarf from the pitch and put it round his neck like Beckham did.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gloom was in the air. \u201cWe could get knocked out of the top four this season which would mean no Champions League football next year, which could be very costly, as it was for Liverpool,\u201d said the vendor. \u201cWe could be the next Liverpool.\u201d<\/p>\n
The rain stopped as quickly as it started. Not one but two rainbows appeared in the sky. \u201cI\u2019ll always back them, whatever,\u201d said a young United fan, Leonnie Turner, 17.\u00a0 Talk turned to whether United would buy Torres from Liverpool to replace Rooney.<\/p>\n
The weather changes quickly in these parts.<\/p>\n
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The sky was a pale blue wintry over Old Trafford yesterday, which seemed apt. For the news had come out of blue to most Manchester United fans that Wayne Rooney, who was named Footballer of the Year last season, had announced that he wants to leave the club. The place was in shock, but few […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,92],"tags":[81],"class_list":["post-2788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-manchester","tag-football"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2788"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2788\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7551,"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2788\/revisions\/7551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}