Mou vs Roo

i know one or two who were defending him playing out of position for England at the start of the Euros but for some reason they seem to have come round to the "he's not a deep-lying mid" argument since the domestic season's started.

his few remaining supporters on the Utd side's argument basically boils down to "well who do we have that's better?"

they get given ammunition by games like Feyenoord where he doesn't play and the team is still shite, even though those occasions almost always feature thrown together second string sides

obviously the team has more problems than just Rooney but jesus christ getting rid of him solves so many of them in a single stroke

the whole thing is like a waking nightmare now. It defies all logic

Yeah just had a look over at redcafe.net and there's not much more on offer than "he's not the only one playing bad you know".

Never forget btw

Gerrard comparison is bizarrely illfitting

Giggs was shit for years FYI

It wasn't remotely the same and you know it

basically every paper has had a "drop Rooney" piece this week

It's all falling into place

Mourinho's played a blinder tbh

i want to believe

hmmm, I wonder who's been talking to his mates in the press tonight

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2016/09/20/manchester-united-manager-jose-mourinhos-criticism-of-players-na/

this whole campaign of luke shaw abuse over the years seems to have completely passed me by. handy limping labrador puppy for someone to hide behind tho i'd imagine

interesting story tho. i was thinking that, partly post-chelsea chastened but mostly carefully united-mythos-deferential given the charlton/fergie opposition, he'd been on his best behaviour biding his time for the moment. hard to believe he'd be miscalculating bollockings this early unless he's really lost the plot

Guardian have this story

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/sep/20/manchester-united-jose-mourinho-criticism-luke-shaw-efl-cup-northampton

Manchester United are not concerned about José Mourinho’s outspoken manner despite reports that Luke Shaw is unhappy at the criticism his manager levelled at him after the defeat at Watford on Sunday.

real cloak and dagger shit

is rooney starting as a forward tonight a sign of support or a sign he won't play vs leicester i wonder?

the latter. We're into the endgame here

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cs52mlTUEAAZw20.jpg

<3

ya

there'll be a belter of a Rooney compilation to come too

lol City in the next round

there'll be a belter of a Rooney compilation to come too

Hopefully featuring the bit where he 'controlled' the ball about ten yards off the pitch to break down an attacking move

^ somewhat mangled and ambiguous, but I know what I meant

this whole campaign of luke shaw abuse over the years seems to have completely passed me by. handy limping labrador puppy for someone to hide behind tho i'd imagine

Given the quote in the article, there aren't many Fergie-era remnants left in the squad - De Gea, Valencia, Carrick, TWP, Jones and Smalling. The first two strike me as unlikely, you'd think Rooney would be keeping his head down now, and the last two might still have a bit too much to lose. Has to be Carrick really.

Carrick is the other suspect alright. In the stories that came out about the players questioning LVG's methods last year it was notable that he and Rooney were the two players who supposedly staged some sort of intervention.

I still think it's Rooney though. He and Stretford are well known for courting the press. Took all the England hacks out for dinner prior to the Euros to get them onside

Also because Carrick doesn't seem a cunt

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

"I think there was a Wayne before the Slovakia-England and a Wayne after the Slovakia-England," Mourinho said.

"I think it was too much but I still think, a big boy like he is, he has to face it in a strong way."

it's a bit early for the kind of paranoid pre-meltdown mourinho is already allowing himself to have.

Keeping an eye on Stormzy's YouTube channel for news of the Rooney benching. I think today might finally be the day.

I'm signing up for every conspiracy theory going if he starts today

(longtime lurker first time poster here):

this goes more to DGAF conspiracy than anything lizardy or contractual, but (post-brexit) isn't there like to be quite a potent impulse for someone like mourinho just thinking "ok i will give these pigheaded insular idiots EXACTLY what they are demanding, they deserve the consequences, it makes no real different to me now -- i will rub their stupid faces in their parochial stupidity"

he's in the downslope of his days as a manager; no one born outside these islands currently working in them can be finding themselves *more* patient and understanding of britishes delusion since june, surely

or is the football world just disconnected from that plane of politics?

DROPPED

kind of annoyed i am going to watch this game and was looking forward to some roo comedy.

when did neville become so overtly daily mail? he just said "i know it's not fashionable to talk about being mean to children nowadays..." before a "players are coddled" rant. i don't mind the latter so much but a seriously freakish intro.

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/5df51f14cc6409ce3c026bfbdffd8c7db621aa0d/0_60_4675_2805/master/4675.jpg

or is the football world just disconnected from that plane of politics?

Mourinho's politics are somewhat to the right of Salazar fwiw.

for sure -- and my not-very-serious speculation was anyway been roundly exploded abt 1.3 seconds after i posted it -- but i guess i'm just interested in the degree to which the residual cultural sentiment of the football outlander ever breaks into these kinds of situations: there must be a BIT of mourinho just exasperated beyond bearing at the inward-looking idiocy of the world he's trying to establish some sort of professional success in

(of course the portuguese and the english are very long-time allies in terms of european politics -- still tied into the "oldest active treaty in the world", so there's that)

leicester aren't very good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToQ0n3itoII

Hohoho

https://twitter.com/piesportsbooze/status/779656176124436480

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

https://media.giphy.com/media/42mVGkLhOW0kU/giphy.gif

You kidding

― poor fiddy-less albion (darraghmac), Sunday, 18 September 2016 15:00 (one week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the quasi-religious requirement for people to pay their verbal tithes to rooney is fucking strange. like even lawro's "he is shit" comment here has to be about form and not ability. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/37461718

i dunno if i mentioned here that there's an acquaintance of a friend i've met about three times who's an evertonian, a drunk evertonian anytime i've met him. a year or two ago, we were chatting about football and i mentioned having doubts about rooney's ability. it became what i thought was one of those faintly, barely, ultimately not at all worthwhile 10-minute debates about an inane topic in which you engage with strangers, and i toned down my sarcasm and actual views accordingly, or at least i thought i did, a few minutes later he was aggressively demanding we go outside and have a punch-up due to my opinion of wayne rooney.

he's been hugely apologetic the two or three times i've met him since, either because it was out of character, or because he now just realises i was right and is mortified.

like people acting as if "he's going through a bad patch". when i first moved to london my flatmate kept buying these tomato plants. they weren't going through bad patches. they were fucking dying.

Born under a bad patch

utterly masterful display of Rooney apologism from Robbie Savage on BT tonight. Completely fluffed a chance which spooned on to Zlatan's head for the goal and Savage spends the rest of the game rhapsodising over his "movement"

He was standing completely unmarked in the middle of the box and took a step backwards

the conspiracy is real

Yup. The mismatch between the punditry and yet another woeful performance from him was ridiculous. Not one mention of that great counterattacking move suddenly grinding to a halt when Rooney massively overhit the pass and nearly sent it out for a thrown in.

Here it is: http://s21.postimg.org/u4yu0zp2f/Rooney_iloveimg_compressed_iloveimg_compressed.gif

Oof

the phrase "that's sunday league stuff" is bandied around a lot nowadays, but that...

lol