When I first heard the rumour about Wayne Rooney and his possible transfer to Arsenal from Manchester United, I laughed it off as one of the more ridiculous rumours in recent times. It was right up there with the idea that Nicklas Bendtner would go to Juventus and pick up a title winning medal.
A few things have made me think again, however, even though the deal still seems unlikely for a number of reasons.
I know that Cesc Fabregas is no longer an Arsenal player, but if he signed for Manchester United this summer, it would feel as bad to me, personally, as if they were signing him from us. The 26-year old Spanish international will be parading the Spanish La Liga trophy through the streets of Barcelona today after Real Madrid could only manage a draw on Saturday to hand the title to the Catalan club.
Are we trying to buy the wrong Man U striker!? by DG
If you buy any paper today you will be inundated with rumours, reports and speculation that Arsenal are set to launch a sensational bid for Wayne Rooney. If these reports are to be believed (and when did a tabloid paper ever get a transfer rumour wrong.
This is the big one for Arsenal. Forget all the hype and the talk of van Persie and the guard of honour, this is the most important game for the rest of the Gunners' season. A win against the newly crowned Premier League champions will put us in a fantastic position with three games against struggling teams left.
Arsenal welcome(sort of) Manchester United, who have won the English Premier League, to the Emirates today for a match that is decidedly crucial for the Gunners and perhaps a little less so for the Red Devils. Of course, along with the visit comes former Gunner and the man of the moment with a hat-trick in his very last game, Robin van Persie, who scored in the reverse fixture earlier this season.
The lame talk of United rocking up as newly crowned Champions and strolling this match are left to the dim witted guessers who are new to this sport. Clearly they may rest one or two, but they have the like of Chico to step in and give us the run around. The long held rivalry between the clubs the classic North South hatred will ensure no game between these two sides will ever feature one side not bothering to show up.
The young Brazilian star Neymar might wish he had not suggested that England were a one man team, after Jack Wilshere put in a Man of the Match performance as England beat Brazil. His Arsenal team mate Theo Walcott was also a real thorn in the side of the South Americans.
Roy Hodgson played with Walcott on the right with the same formation he often plays for Arsenal.
The 21-year old Arsenal midfielder Jack Wilshere is being hailed as the next big thing in the England international team. His skills, passion and drive have made his team mates, pundits and people across the football world see him as a bit of a saviour for English football. Liam Brady thinks he will join the likes of Rooney Hoddle and Gascoigne in the ranks of England's best creative players, but the recent reports about one of those players, Paul Gascoigne, shows what too much pressure and expectation can do to people, and the England manager is keen to stop too much talk about Jack's potential.
Liam Brady has been Head of Youth Development and Academy Director at Arsenal since 1996, and Jack Wilshere joined the club as a nine year old just months after the former Gunner took charge. That gives Brady a great insight into the progress and ability of Wilshere, and the Irishman has been extolling his virtues ahead of the England friendly tomorrow.
With the absence of Jermain Defoe for England, Theo Walcott is now hoping that he can get a chance to prove to Roy Hodgson that he is also good enough to play as an out-and-out striker for the national side as well as Arsenal.
He said: "The next test for me is to get my England career back where it should be," said Walcott.
Theo Walcott is proving his value to Arsenal with his goalscoring this season, whether playing from the right or through the middle, and he could be given the chance to show what he can do for England this week. The visit of Brazil to Wembley on Wednesday is a real glamour tie, and Walcott's hopes of getting the chance to score were given a boost today from Daniel Sturridge.
Rooney to Arsenal? The silly season's started early by FD
It's no secret that Wayne Rooney has been less than happy with being little more than a bit-part player in Manchester United's Premiership-winning side. When he was recently reported as wanting a move away from Old Trafford, the football world must have shrugged and muttered "so what's new?
Manchester United are reportedly considering selling Wayne Rooney to Chelsea in the summer for £25million. According to the Daily Mail, Rooney has handed in a transfer request at Old Trafford, and is...
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It's not often the manager gets the blog picture. Even stranger coming in off the back of a match that had more than enough candidates. But I think it the best indication of how West Ham took their match against Utd last night, and how gutted they were not to win. A late Van Persie conversion preventing that, prompting fury from the Hammers and quotes about Utd involving such words as: "We played like Champions.
After two straight defeats, with performances that were as tepid as a cup of tea in the fridge, Utd ran out at home against Stoke yesterday looking to get back on track for title number 20. On paper, it looked positively easy. Stoke have scored fewer goals than anyone else in the league, and have a remarkable success record of two wins in the last 17.
Robin van Persie aside, Wayne Rooney, Danny Welbeck, and Chicharito have defined Man Utd's strike force in recent years.Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole defined Manchester United's attack in the late 90s.
I don't usually have time to do a post aside from match reports, but given the international break seems to have gone on forever, I thought I'd do a bit of mixture: bit of an international round-up, bit of site news, bit of Sunderland build-up etc. First off, site news: I've been back since the season start and I've learnt it's hard work reviving a dead blog.
Let us begin with a toast to the weekend's sporting action from a Red perspective. So it's glasses up to Everton for showing the kind of performance we applaud here at this blog, as long as it isn't against Utd (and even if it is we're not blind). As it happens, it was against City, so title hopes truly over for them now, I think.
Much like midweek, this report is hard to write. It's main purpose is to push the annoying picture at the top of the last post out of sight down the page. I've heard some people say that Utd fans don't get as much excitement and feeling from their team's football compared to the drama of watching, say, a team like QPR fight against relegation because Utd 'win most of the time anyway'.
After his stunning goal against Chelsea yesterday, Man United's Chicharito continues to rake up points like Beyoncé at the Superbowl. Come on now, tipo deserves a sangria and nachos on premium cheese for his performance yesterday! Sadly, the sassy Chicha unmistakably did so at the expense of his teammate a certain lad named Wayne Rooney - who is tragically close to becoming "the world's highest-paid utility player" next season.
Wayne Rooney of Manchester United (Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images)
Speculation has been swirling around Wayne Rooney's future in Manchester after the striker was left out of Sir Alex Ferguson's starting XI for the team's crucial UCL match with Real Madrid. While the 27 year old did get a chance to come on in the 73rd minute on Tuesday, Ferguson opted to start Robin Van Persie and Danny Welbeck instead of Rooney.
Sir Alex Ferguson lost it. He saw the red card and charged like a bull. He slammed the seat in front of him, pushing a team official out of his way to reach the touchline, looking this way and that, as if searching for an answer. There were none.
I think we can all agree that Shinji Kagawa has not had the easiest start to his Utd career. A subdued start, just two goals, then a tough-to-take persistent injury. Certainly not the dangerous midfield man that was scoring goals for fun over in Dortmund. Well yesterday afternoon, out of nowhere, the man from Japan found whatever was missing and hit the ground running from the whistle.
It was a night of drama, a night of passion, a night of survival. It was a night when United survived relentless pressure and fought their demons to reach a draw that could prove pivotal in their European campaign. Much had been made of this clash, Ronaldo's first meeting against his former club, and it [.
Wayne Rooney scored twice in Wednesday night's 2-1 victory over Southampton at Old Trafford and the England man has to be considered as the most important player at the club. There are of course many...
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Well, of all the Premier League games played yesterday, Utd's clash with Fulham was probably the least of the lot, in terms of match action. With Newcastle playing out a 3-2 victory over Chelsea, and Everton coming back from 3-1 down against Villa to draw 3-3, and Wigan and Southampton's 2-2 scrap, Utd were pretty far down the billing on Match of the Day.
Following City's draw against QPR, Utd had a chance to push the league lead back up to seven points against Southampton last night. Whilst the outcome was ultimately the one required, Sir Alex's post-match statement that Southampton were 'the best side to play here this season' highlighted that this was no one-sided contest.
The third round against West Ham may have required a replay, but not many predicted anything other than a routine Utd win as the Reds went into the fourth round at home against Fulham. Even with many lower league teams still in the competition, Utd's record of drawing Premier League opposition is quite consistent (11 out of the last 12 ties or something of this nature).
To paraphrase Winston Churchill, success is not final, failure is not fatal. It's the courage to continue that counts. That, in a nutshell, sums up events at Old Trafford for while United weren't by any means spectacular, they simply wanted today's game more than Fulham did. That's not to say that the Old Trafford crowd [.
Giggs. Is there a player that epitomises everything about a club more so than he does for Manchester United? I can think only of very few select others, an elite if you will. Lampard at Chelsea, Gerrard at Liverpool, then further afield, Del Piero playing at Juventus, Maldini at Milan, and the mercurial Totti at Roma.
It only took Wayne Rooney nine minutes to make an impact in his return from injury, and his quick goal was all that Manchester United needed to get the FA Cup replay victory over West Ham on Wednesday.
Rooney, who had been out since Christmas Day with a knee injury suffered during training, redirected a pass from Javier Hernandez into a wide-open goal to register his ninth goal of the season.
Ryan Giggs rolled back the years and produced a vintage performance as United moved into the fourth round of the FA Cup after an insipid 1-0 win against West Ham at Old Trafford. The Welshman was one of the few positives of a game in which United never really got going and risked more than [...]
With Christmas done and dusted, the January transfer window is less than a week away, meaning that tabloids across the country are starting to flex their muscles in a bid to produce a different rumour every day. As far as United are concerned, Sir Alex has made clear he doesn't intend to strengthen the team [.
Utd don't do draws. But if they did, they'd probably be the best draws, in the world. Well, that's not quite true, but the game that played out between Swansea and Utd yesterday certainly didn't just stop at the two first-half goals. There were plenty of chances, even with a somewhat strange occasion where Rooney had a horrible afternoon, Van Persie didn't have much fun and Valencia and Young went on an early Christmas break.
Santi Cazorla hit for a hat trick Monday evening against Reading, will one of Aguero, Tevez, Balotelli, or Dzeko do the same this weekend? Let's take a look. I. Aston Villa @ Chelsea: Quite the intriguing matchup. Chelsea continue their ... Continue reading →
As part of his plea bargain following his sending off for England against Montenegro back in October of 2011, Wayne Rooney agreed to volunteer for a stint of community service at UEFA's behest and that day was today.
Rooney was initially given a three-match ban but had it shorn down to two after agreeing to sign up for a community project and thereforeturned up completely unannounced at Swiss youth team Payerne's training HQ and conducted a morning training session with the lads.
Following last week's epic derby, the visit of Sunderland was always going to be a bit flat by comparison. However, to not build on that City win would have been criminal, so avoiding complacency yesterday agains the Black Cats was perhaps the main aim. On paper it looked like a good game in which to increase goal difference, which for all Utd's turbo-charged firepower, hasn't increased that rapidly due to defensive issues.
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Repeatedly this season I've said that Wayne Rooney is our most important player. This isn't to be confused with me thinking he's our best player. Robin van Persie is a far superior striker and his 12 goals/6 assists in 16 starts go a long way to supporting this.
For those who have played the equivalent of five games in the league, this is the ranking of how much distance they've covered minute on the pitch: 1. Rooney 2. Carrick 3. Van Persie 4. Cleverley 5. Scholes 6. Young 7. Welbeck 8. Evans 9. Rafael 10. Hernandez 11. Evra 12. Valencia 13. Vidic 14. Smalling 15.
