Something tells me Sir Alex Ferguson is a genius.
Let's look at it this way...Wayne Rooney hasn't exactly been an inspirational figure, the last few months. One goal...through a penalty kick. Not exactly in form. Not exactly awe inspiring. Not exactly the man we had come to know and love, all through last season's brilliant personal campaign. Not exactly a match winner. Not exactly the team icon. Not exactly Wayne Rooney.
So, looking back a week or two, Wayne Rooney commits a horrible mistake. He, maybe, 'sleeps' with a hooker(or two), while his wife is pregnant, and maybe... it becomes public knowledge. Wayne Rooney, maybe, isn't the perfect Man United player anymore. So, Sir Alex Ferguson shields him from the media...he protects his star...Rooney is benched for a match or two. All this while, remember, he isn't scoring goals...Berbatov is.
The fans have developed these doubts in their minds about Rooney's ability now, and that isn't exactly how the leading goal scorer in the Premier League for the previous season is supposed to be thought about in the minds of his fans. Something needs to be done.
So what happens is, is that Rooney loses faith in his club.
And so, there are rumors flying about now. Is it true? Has Wayne Rooney not signed a contract renewal with United?!
Shit...
That's major news...if its true.
And so the rumor mill spins.
A few days of intense media speculation later, Sir Alex, in a heart rending address at a press conference, concedes that Wayne Rooney has, in fact, declined to sign a renewal of his contract with Manchester United, and has expressed a 'strong' desire to leave Old Trafford in search of greener pastures.
But there are no greener pastures, does every United fan think.
Rooney is a fool.
Rooney is after the money, after the more lucrative contract that Sheikh Mansour at the City of Manchester Stadium is apparently ready to offer him.
Oh, the very idea of Rooney playing for Manchester City makes half the United fans throw up, and the other half scream in their sleep.
Oh, Rooney is a whore, who'll run after whoever dangles the biggest bill in front of him.
We spend a day in disgust. And now, most of us hate Rooney.
By now, there are a dozen facebook status updates on my 'News Feed' that declare intense disgust with Rooney's decision. My own status is about something Sir Alex said, to alleviate the pain of his broken-hearted fans.
Yes, I'm heartbroken just then.
I don't particularly like Wayne Rooney just then.
But suddenly, there are a lot of bomb shells being dropped about in the media room at Old Trafford.
A day later, some hours ago in fact, the Manchester United website declares Wayne Rooney is a 'Red Devil After All'...he's signed a new contract that ensures he's going to be at Old Trafford till 2015, at least, which means quite possibly, till the end of his career. There's a statement released from Wayne Rooney which states that he will obviously "have to win back the fans' love and support." He will have to "score a lot of goals to win the respect and support back."
Quite a sentimental figure does Wayne Rooney cut now.
Hated by his fans, all credibility lost. A man who hasn't scored a goal from open play since March this year, a man who has been in the center of the biggest media storm that Old Trafford has seen since Beckham left, a man labeled a whore by half of his former fans, and a fool in his agent's pocket by the other half...this man, who was transformed from being Old Trafford's hero, into Old Trafford's villain...has now suddenly been transformed again into Old Trafford's wayward son, who has seen the error of his ways and is looking to mend them and get back into the hearts of his fans by scoring a few much needed goals.
Suddenly he needs to score those goals.
Something tells me that when he does score them, quite certainly in the next few weeks, he will be transformed once again into the hero...perhaps with that intriguing tinge of a tainted past.
Something tells me this whole 'incident' at Old Trafford might just have been the catalyst needed to bring back Rooney's form.
Something tells me Sir Alex Ferguson is a genius.
Sometimes you look in a field and you see a cow, and you think it's a better cow than the one you've got in your own field. It's a fact. Right? And it never really works out that way.
-Sir Alex Ferguson
