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Barry's weekly column
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 I'll be honest. I don't think Wayne Rooney is going to be in the right condition to play for England at the World Cup. I love the lad, I think he's f*****g brilliant, but if he's not right, I think it would be a nonsense decision to take him. His scans have shown that he's not ahead of schedule and that he can't do anything until he has his next scan on June 14. That's only a day before our second match of the competition, and I think that's going to be too late. Looking on the negative side, the scan might show that his foot still hasn't mended, in which case he'll definitely be out of the whole thing. Alternatively, on the positive side, it might say he's OK to train. But even so – he won't have trained since April for goodness sake! It will take him at least a fortnight to get himself in half decent nick, and let's be fair, we might be knocked out by then! If we're still in it, he might be OK for the World Cup final but come on – he can't walk straight into the team for a f*****g World Cup final after almost three months out can he?!! It's such a pity because Wayne Rooney is so good! The temptation is there to give him a chance and I suppose I can't blame Sven for waiting. But for me, we should just accept the fact that he's injured and call up a replacement. The odds are stacked against Rooney too much I reckon. It doesn't matter how good a footballer you are, you can't simply accelerate the healing of broken bones! I also think it's a bit of a nonsense to take Theo Walcott to the World Cup. I just can't see the gamble paying off. I know he's a talent, and I know he's lightning fast, but I just don't think it's right for England to put a kid of his inexperience in this high pressure situation. I saw him play for England B and he did OK. He just hasn't had enough time to get used to football at international level in my opinion. It's going to be so hard for him out there in Germany. The situation is different with Aaron Lennon because he's had a full Premiership season under his belt and it showed against Belarus. I thought he was f*****g outstanding. I've said before in this column that I rate Lennon, so I'm glad he took his chance the other night. He's such a positive player, and with his skill and speed I think he can cause defenders problems in the World Cup. They won't know much about him and because of that I expect him to shine if he gets a chance to play. I think he will get a chance now after the way he played for the B team. It was a shame to see Robert Green get injured and rule himself out of the World Cup, but his loss has been Scott Carson's gain. I was also thrilled to see Ben Foster get called up to the standby list. I remember sitting alongside Sir Alex Ferguson and his wife at last season's LDV Trophy final and seeing Ben Foster help Wrexham win it. He was on loan from Stoke City back then, but not long afterwards Sir Alex signed him for Manchester United! He loaned him out to Watford straight away, where he's helped them get promoted to the Premiership. What a f*****g year Ben Foster's had!! All he needs now is for someone else to get injured and he really will be in dreamland. It's an unbelievable fairytale story. |
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