Premier League Diary - it shouldn’t take two handsome bloggers to spell it out

There is, in New York, a tall, handsome and incredibly smart man called Bill Ackman. He is often a contrarian, prone to take the opposite view to the majority of people. He makes his living as an investor. As a result, when he’s right - which is most of the time - people get annoyed, because he’s proven them wrong. When he’s wrong - which is occasionally, and it costs him many millions of dollars - people get in their cups and in their feelings with schadenfreude, feeliing a sense of revenge for all the times he had proven them wrong, and the certainty with which he’d expressed his feelings.

Years ago, he was one of the few people to point out that the American financial system was built on smoke and mirrors, and he campaigned hard against an Insurance company, MBIA, pointing out that they did not have the financial reserves to withstand any economic downturn. He pointed out, again and again, for many years, that what was going on was not treated objectively.

Essentially, the ratings companies, and the rest of the financial world, decided that they were credit-worthy because if they weren’t, the system would break down. As a result, they had to be credit-worthy, no matter what the numbers or reality said.It took years, but ultimately Ackman was proved right, because when the downturn did inevitably arrive, there came a point at which there were no more misdirections to pull off, no more counter-accusations to make, and - most importantly - there was no more money to pay the bills when required.

Now, we are not comparing ourselves to a tall, handsome and incredibly smart man - that is for you to decide. But we have now finally arrived at the point where the majority has finally caught up with the best minds of its generation, when it comes to Wayne Rooney anyway.It’s true, there has always been a dissenting faction who have been able to see Rooney for what he became. It has not been a sudden decline this last season. Ever since, and during, his last season under Alex Ferguson, he has been terrible at football. People have asked why, if he was so bad, did manager after manager say how important he was? The answer is, none of the good ones did. Ferguson has many faults, but he had bought Robin van Persie and Shinji Kagawa to replace Rooney, and also attempted to sign one of Lucas Moura and Neymar to complete the defenestration. While Kagawa’s poor form prevented Rooney from being totally cut adrift, he nevertheless presented David Moyes and Ed Woodward with a fait accompli, which they absolutlely Kaka’d.

Rooney continued to be doggerel for United, Moyes, Louis van Gaal and England, but he was always there. Always important, always the captain. People talked of him becoming the top scorer for England and Manchester United, but last season some of his goals literally came from Anthony Martial punting the ball at Rooney with so much force that his movements weren’t required, he was a coincidentally-placed bollard to work with.

But still it came. That he was the liaison between the squad and the manager. That he was well liked and respected. It didn’t matter that he was awful, because people were willing to overlook it while those around him also struggled. What was bizarre was that Van Persie, say, was a legitimate target, but for the pundits and peers, Rooney remained unassailable. He was let down, constantly, by tactics, team-mates and managers. There wasn’t enough running for him, despite passes flying out of touch. He was a striker, he shouldn’t be in midfield. He was a midfielder, not a striker. He was a number 10, not a striker or a midfielder. There was always an excuse, never a reason to come up with the simplest explanation: maybe he wasn’t good enough.

It is hard to work out why the answer was avoided for so long, so perhaps the reason is the one mentioned above. MBIA was credit-worthy because without it, it wouldn’t be MBIA. Wayne Rooney, perhaps, had to be the best English footballer, a captain and able to cut it with some of the best players in Europe, because otherwise, he would no longer be Wayne Rooney. If he wasn’t the same Rooney that his former brilliance had promised, then too much would have to be rethought. New explanations would have to be found or speculated on for his downfall. New best players would need to be assigned a description.

A player declining before he hit 30 was so weird and rare, that it wasn’t countenanced. Far better to continue to point out problems anywhere and everywhere they could be found, and just wait for Rooney to revert to the mean.The problem is, the mean was dragged down lower and lower for each season that passed without an improvement. It got dragged even further when Rooney deteriorated despite all the accommodations made for him. The recalibration of his status and ability will be brutal and severe. Waiting any longer will only make it worse.

As Manchester United are starting to come to terms with reality, the rest of the league are moving on. Manchester City are improving without Yaya Toure, their own obsolescence. Spurs and Arsenal won, again. Liverpool are finally free of the ghost of Steven Gerrard now that the superior Jurgen Klopp has them playing in his desired style. Leicester have added to their squad, and aren’t worried about giving new, better players their chance. Most of the league is ready to move onto something new. It does not need a pair of incredibly talented, good-looking football bloggers to spell it out.