Is Wayne Rooney Captain Material?

By: Daryl | December 12th, 2007

Is Wayne Rooney Captain Material? For Manchester United’s meaningless Champions League game against Roma today (both sides are already through) Alex Ferguson will be fielding an almost unrecognizable team. The likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Paul Scholes, Rio Ferdinand and others will have their feet up while a very Carling Cup looking team will get a run out at the Stadio Olimpico. The one big name that will be taking the field is Wayne Rooney, who’ll be auditioning for the next stage of his career by wearing the captain’s armband.

“He’s been pestering me for ages to be our captain,” said Ferguson. “He gets his chance now and I’ve got no qualms about it. Wayne has some of the qualities of three of our best-ever captains: Steve Bruce, Bryan Robson and Roy Keane. They were all players of great determination and spirit and, like them, Wayne is an inspirational player who leads by example.”

Is this a wise idea?

Isn’t this the same Wayne Rooney who was sent off in a World Cup quarter final for stamping on Ricardo Carvalho’s balls like they were on fire? The same Wayne Rooney who fills games with expletives and harangues referees? The same Rooney who spends his cash on prostitutes with 16 grandkids? In his defence, Rooney is now 22 years old. Though still far too young for that granny, the temper tantrums have noticeably subsided. No red cards so far his season, and some inspiring performances.

We’ll find out more tonight when Rooney leads out an inexperienced side against a Roma team that will want revenge for that embarrassing 7-1 defeat last year. Players like Johnny Evans will look to Rooney for leadership not just because he’s wearing some stretchy material around his bicep, but because he’ll be the most senior player out there.

It’s also worth considering that Ferguson is a wily old manager and well versed in all kinds of mind games. So rather than questioning whether Rooney is mature enough for the captaincy, maybe we should look at this as part of the process, with Ferguson thrusting responsibility onto Rooney in order to make him mature.