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Five things... that persuaded Wayne Rooney to stay at Manchester United
Self-belief
You don’t become your club and country’s most prolific striker of all time without thinking you’re a bit good. And Wayne Rooney has always thought he is good, and still does, even if he (allegedly) isn’t anymore. By rejecting a move to China before Pancake Day (aka the Chinese Super League transfer deadline on 28 February), Rooney has shown he believes he can still offer something to the Manchester United team for the remainder of the season, despite large amounts of evidence to the contrary (e.g. the fact that he is never picked, and that the club were more than happy for him to leave). But Rooney has proved the doubters wrong before, and he thinks he will again. Probably.
READ MORE: Rooney confirms he is staying at Man United
READ MORE: Rooney has nothing left to prove at United, says Bilic
Loyalty
Rooney is Man Utd’s captain and longest-serving player – cut him open and his blood runs red. (As a boyhood Everton fan it was said his blood ran blue, which was quite concerning actually, so it’s much better this way.) He would not countenance leaving Jose Mourinho in the lurch as the club battled for four trophies this season (the FA Cup, the EFL Cup, the Europa League and the Premier… ok, three trophies) because he knew his manager needed all the players he could get. Rooney’s love for the club has never been questioned. Even when he handed in a transfer request in 2010 and threatened to move to arch rivals Man City, this was just because he knew he would play better if United subsequently offered him an improved contract and therefore it would be best for the club, ultimately.
Selflessness
Even if Rooney is not getting many minutes on the pitch, as one of the most experienced men in the Red Devils squad he believes he can pass down his wisdom and expertise to the younger players. For instance, when Marcus Rashford makes a pacy run down the wing, Rooney can take him aside and tell him that he used to be fast too and that it was great. Or when Jesse Lingard gets sent off for kicking someone, Rooney can tell him to keep up the good work and not take any s*** off f****** idiots. Essentially Wazza just wants to help, whether it’s advising Eric Bailly about where to have a post-match beer without been papped, or volunteering an hour at the end of training each day to teach Chris Smalling how to do overhead kicks like the one he scored against Manchester City.
READ MORE: Roy Keane – it would be madness if Rooney left for China!
READ MORE: Home bird Rooney not suited to China – Phil Neville
Poor hotel breakfast
Rooney may have also had some reservations about moving to China, a place which has virtually nothing in common with the North-West where he has lived his entire life (apart from the fact there are a lot of Chinese takeaways there). Rooney’s agent Paul Stretford was reportedly in Asia this week staying at the Renaissance Hotel in Tianjin, home to one of the clubs chasing his client (and a place where any extended family visiting Wayne and Colleen might have spent a lot of time). It’s possible Stretford reported back that the establishment’s breakfast buffet was not to the Rooneys’ refined tastes, completely bereft of baked beans and dominated by array of congees that Stretford said “looked funny” and did not appear to be “normal food”.
Integrity
Above all, however, it is Rooney’s love for the beautiful game that has kept him in England. A man who will retire with an unrivalled legacy – with records coming out of every orifice – he thought better of tainting his reputation, even if only slightly, by seeing out his career going through the motions in an inferior league just to earn some extra money that he doesn’t need. Rooney is a working-class hero, a street footballer who fought his way from Croxteth to the top, and he is going to rise above all this Chinese nonsense, even if they are willing to pay him a million pounds a week, which is frankly an obscene amount of money – disgusting (and their offer will still be on the table in the summer, but that’s irrelevant – totally irrelevant).
READ MORE: SELLING ROONEY NOW WOULD BE ‘ODD’ – NEVILLE
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