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| Wayne did not enjoy this article |
One man certainly not affected by the current economic climate is Wayne Rooney. We used to have the viewpoint that Rooney was one of us, a street urchin from Croxeth who just happened to be one of the most gifted footballers in the world, a throwback player who played the game with passion and desire, simply because he loved football. When he was caught knocking off a couple prostitutes as a teenager we laughed about it, admittedly she was so much older than him that it was actually funny. Coleen, probably not laughing as much, forgave Wayne as well.
Cut to September 2010 and Rooney was at it again, better quality of prostitute, big mark up on the price and it was interesting to see that ‘the boy’ as Fergie calls him was developing a cheeky penchant for threesomes. Developing his game on and off the field. Now, he got a bit of stick for this one and rightly so but how much of this was moral outrage and how much was anger at his lacklustre performances for England at the World Cup? If he had done an Iniesta over the summer would we have really cared? We’re not married to him. Coleen unfortunately is but it looks like she has once again pushed down her resentment and forgiven him.
Last week, Rooney held Manchester United to ransom over a contract worth £250,000 a week, in the process courting attention from footballs equivalent of Michael Carroll (Manchester City) and making Ferguson ruin his hard as nails image with a press conference that was ten minutes away from the great man pulling out a guitar and begging the errant scouser to stay with a bitter, tear drenched song. But what’s this? It worked! Give the man an Emmy, Rooney’s staying!
The trouble is that with this new deal Rooney’s wages are so far removed from the average supporters that he’s no longer one of us. We expect footballers to earn incredible wages but even by the astronomical figures we see as standard, this is ridiculous. For example, Wayne now earns my daily wages in less than two minutes. If he came to work with me he could leave before my computer had fully loaded, and I’m pretty sure I did better in my GCSE’s than him. In one year he is set to earn around £12 million from Manchester United, on my current temps wage I would have to work for 967 years just to match that.
It’s not just the fans wages Rooney is dwarfing now either, his pay packet doubles everyone else’s in the dressing room. It must smart a little to see a teammate question your ability only to be rewarded with a pay rise unheard of in the clubs history.
Rooney has now set himself the impossible task of justifying this contract every game, bag a couple of hat tricks and people will say he’s worth every penny but if he dares go a couple of games without a goal the backlash won’t ever be far round the corner. He was everyone’s favourite working class hero but anyone who pays £200 for a pack of fags (what are they, healthy ones?) is no longer in tune with those who pay to watch him.
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