With age, comes experience and with experience, comes maturity. When Sir Alex Ferguson handpicked a teenager from Everton, the eye-catching transfer fee might have questioned upon the mental state of the Scot, but the dividends Manchester United reaped out of the sensational youngster over time has been simply priceless. Master Wayne has been the face of the Red Devils for over a decade now and his continuation at the ever so demanding club doesn’t look bleak by any measure.
Wayne Rooney’s transformation into a midfield general from being a striker will be held up as a shining example of a player who made a galvanising switch in his responsibilities with a sheer ease. The captain could sniff that he was losing his poaching attributes as well as the pace required to move on with the passage of time, and so did the manager Louis Van Gaal (though Sir Alex Ferguson and David Moyes may have forwarded the idea, the severe implementation took place in the Dutchman’s reign).
In spite of lamenting upon the fall of the ‘Striker Rooney’, the English international rather worked on his functions in the central area. He might look so tailor-made in this role at the moment, be it in the England line-up or with Manchester United but it was not achieved overnight. The 30-year-old has triggered the button of versatility which has shown us a player of entirely different calibre. Be it in the Manchester United’s setup last season or England Euro campaign in France, Rooney was implemented in the spot the legendary Paul Scholes thrived in and this development has been an exceptional one.
Rooney has always been an influential character on the pitch and has that hunger to win still very much alive in him. In Roy Hodgson’s English side, Rooney drops to the central midfield and from here on starts his invaluable contribution to his national side. He makes those short pings to his fellow midfielders, works hard to track the ball, makes those vital tackles, creates yards of space, toils up and down the pitch like a workhorse, brings that creative aspect to the Three Lions’ frame, sets up those juicy 40-yard passes with sheer perfection, dictates the tempo and pulls off the duties of a captain by citing himself as a pristine example. He has got those goal-scoring machines like Jamie Vardy, Harry Kane and Daniel Sturridge up front, the pace and agility of Dele Alli and Eric Dier around him and it was harsh on Rooney that England bowed out of the competition quite earlier than expected.
England’s forward Wayne Rooney acknowledges the fans after England lost 2-1 to Iceland in the Euro 2016 round of 16 football match between England and Iceland at the Allianz Riviera stadium in Nice on June 27, 2016. / AFP / PAUL ELLIS (Photo credit should read PAUL ELLIS/AFP/Getty Images)
The fresh rays of a new dawn have kissed the Old Trafford with José Mourinho embracing the pedestal and this will bring a sea of changes in the empire of the Reds, most likely with an exception. He will probably be deployed just behind the striker(s) in the shape of Anthony Martial, Marcus Rashford or the great Zlatan Ibrahimović being the options up front for Mourinho. Rooney will be a constant element in the line-up but from which position will he actually ply his trade is an interesting case altogether.
The Portuguese manager is pragmatic with his 4-2-3-1 approach and has used a brilliant creative player like Cesc Fàbregas as a deep-lying playmaker at Chelsea. The United side might be in transition but after everything Rooney has offered in the midfield role, he will be employed either as an auxiliary playmaker from the deep or will be handed the role Oscar had under Mourinho. The latter role looks more likely though for Rooney under the ‘Special One’, in the process of which the royal son of English football can once again prove to the audience that he is worth every penny Manchester United fish out for him.