Joining the Rooney bandwagon

If Rooney can maintain current form he will finally start to live up to the hype and may help England to its first World Cup Final since 1966. He has now matured into a genuine “World class” player. He is not a second Pele, Best or Maradonna or van Nistelrooy or Gerd Muller for that matter. He’s the first Wayne Rooney. He will never beat a man or poach goals the way they did but they didn’t have his physicality. Otherwise he’s a very complete player added to which there’s his drive, determination and strength. He’s now a constant menace for any defence, whether making plays to set up chances or taking them himself. Rooney-Gerrard doesn’t quite meet the “Moore-Charlton equivalency” criterion but throw in a Joe Cole and a blossoming Walcott along with a steady defence and there’s enough to get excited. (Goalkeeping is a bit of a worry.) Back at Man U, there’s also room to entertain significant thoughts of a Championship repeat despite improvements to all of the quality opposition. The defence is still sound, midfield overpowering, even without Hargreaves and Scholes and Rooney, Ronaldo, Berbatov and Tevez available for scoring. Pity any defence against any permutation of that group.