stu1 wrote: ↑Tue Jan 25, 2022 12:51 am
It’s nonsense.
Rooney scored 9 league goals in his last season at Everton and contributed 1 assist. That’s hardly irreplaceable.
Meanwhile Antonio has scored 8 and assisted 7 this season, despite us being just over half way through the season.
Rice is far more crucial to us than Rooney ever was Everton. Rooney could have been just as important or possibly more important if he’d stayed, but he didn’t he left during the infancy of his career.
It’s an insult to Rice to claim otherwise and completely revisionary.
Oh come on. Rooney was the most exciting player on the planet at the time:
Sir Alex Ferguson said he was delighted to sign a player who he claimed last week would make United's squad as strong as that which won the European Cup in 1999.
"I am very excited. I think we have got the best young player this country has seen in the past 30 years," he said.
"Everyone is delighted by this signing.”
Alan Hansen:
“Rooney is also blessed with the astonishing ability, again for one so young, to know where to go on the pitch, when and why. He is a natural.
“Some people might question the wisdom of Sir Alex Ferguson spending up to £27m on a striker when he has Ruud van Nistelrooy, Alan Smith and Louis Saha at his disposal.
“But Rooney showed at Euro 2004 that he can give you that something extra, which is what United need after not having the best of starts to the season.
“It is clear United would probably have preferred to wait until January or maybe even next summer to get Rooney, but Newcastle's sudden interest has flushed them out and they have had to move now.
“The swift response from Ferguson showed that this was a player he was simply not prepared to miss out on.”