Sometimes its hard to like anyone

September 6th, 2010 | by: Rob |

Blue Roon So…the Wayne Rooney affair. If you’ve been living under a rock (or as I had been over the weekend, somewhere away from the internet), it was widely reported in the press that England’s talismanic striker had indulged in some extra martial business, with a prostitute, while his wife was pregnant. Fabio Capello is going to assess to the strikers mindset, before deciding whether to play him in probably our toughest qualifying match for Euro 2012 (liveblog here tomorrow) against Switzerland.

First off, assuming the speculation is true, the obviously it is pretty reprehensible of Rooney, and he joins the unlovable rouges gallery that is the England Squad (see also, John Terry, Steven Gerrard, etc). A genuinely awful thing to do.

On the other hand, I’m not exactly going to take the press side with it either. The revelations were perfectly timed to try and derail the England squad coming between two qualifying matches, and presumably they’ve had this hanging over his head for awhile, which make explain his distracted performances in the World Cup.

Hopefully he will be in a good frame of mind, and will let his football do the talking. Sadly I’m pretty used to having to support unlikable characters for England, and I have to hope this doesn’t upset the camp or the campaign.

No-one has come of this sorry saga a winner. Rooney, the press, England, Man United in all likelyhood. It isn’t really what you want to be writing about directly before an England game (i’m sure you don’t really want to be reading it either) but there is no escaping that the nations eyes will be even more on Wayne tomorrow than they were the other night. Fingers crossed he doesn’t do something stupid. Again.

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http://france.worldcupblog.org/ OffsideSarah

Honestly, how is it even considered news that Rooney (allegedly) visits prostitutes? This has received more ink that thousands of football fans who may have had their identities sold on the black market? What kind of world do we live in?

Rob, to clarify, this tangent is not aimed at you. If you hadnt brought it up it would be the elephant in the room- but it is a media-created elephant. As a France fan, Ive had to discuss many seedy topics on information I would have preferred not to even know.

If this is all it takes to derail an England campaign (a tell-all story) – your camp is even more vulnerable than I thought. If this is all it takes to derail Rooney – then he's even more sensitive than I thought (which may or may not be a good thing). Have you ever considered this is part of the Swiss strategy to win points this week?
http://www.facebook.com/people/Isabel-Ghose/528855744 Isabel Ghose

I really don't think anyone is surprised by this news though I do think it was very conveniently timed. Probably so the media can run with the will he or won't he play for the next two days and if he doesn't score a hat-trick then say it was because his mind was on his wife.
http://www.soccerlimeyinamerica.com SoccerLimey

I disagree with Sarah that it has received a ton of ink. When this story first broke, many news organizations didn't even spell out the facts as they saw it but chose to state that “Rooney is beleived to still be making the trip to Switzerland despite the allegations about his private life”.

Now I will grant you that I don't live in the UK anymore so I'm restricted to reading the online publications. Honestly, without sounding like I told you so, I have been saying for a while that something was going on with Rooney that we didn't know about. I'm sure this contributed to his malaise over the last couple of months as I bet he knew he'd been busted.

My final comment is who cares ? I'm way past the point where I could give a damn what these guys get up to in their private lives. If they can play, they play. If they can't play because their tongue is still dragging on the ground from the night before, then they're benched and dropped until it gets fixed.

As far as the conspiracy theory about trying to derail England's campaign, that's a load of rubbish. If that was the case, this story would have broken towards the end of the Group games rather than at the beginning.

Finally, my male chauvinism has to shine through here but what the hell is he doing with all these skanks anyway ? None of them are much of an improvement on Coleen. He could get a room full of hotties that would keep their mouths shut if he wanted, or maybe not these days.

Hey, Wayne. Your cell phone's ringing. It's Tiger……………………….
http://france.worldcupblog.org/ OffsideSarah

The Swiss conspiracy theory was completely said tongue in cheek as a joke. I was poking fun at the idea of the story being “perfect timed” and how fragile the England camp must be if this is all it takes to keep them from playing their best player.

And despite the fact that you disagree with the amount of attention this has received, I think we generally agree on the substance – Who the fuck cares?
http://www.soccerlimeyinamerica.com SoccerLimey

I don't think for one moment that he won't play against Switzerland. I think that's just the rampant attack dogs in the media trying to get Capello involved based on his statement that he wouldn't choose players who can't keep their noses clean.

And I do agree that who cares ?

http://www.soccerlimeyinamerica.com/?p=1359