St. Juste
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People are going on about Rooney's 'lifestyle choices' and comparing him to Gazza are more than a bit over the top. Getting a bit fat on holiday and having a few pints after an England game arent exactly self destructive behaviours on the level of the likes of Paul McGrath, Maradona etc.
And for all these debates, I dont know how anyone can say Rooney hasnt reached any potential. Won every club honour there is with United, broke their scoring record, broke England's scoring record and their most capped outfield player. Short of winning something with England, he really cant have done much more.
As I've said before, I'd be surprised if Rooney manages as much in his 30s as Gazza did.
Fair comment on the Vegas thing. Though you can blame some of that one some pretty appalling management from Hodgson. He knew full well that Rooney was suspended for the first 2 group games, and was already under pressure not to pick him at all. Any manager with any authority would have given him a regime to make sure he would still be fit when he hadnt played a proper game in so long before that 3rd group game. Rather than no having the bollocks to give strict instructions to his star players, and then blindly defending it when it came back to bite him afterwards. But Hodgson and England is a whole other story. You can make a case for simply dozens of players who havent ever looked quite as impressive for England as they did for their clubs, even players like Lampard and Gerrard who were otherwise pictures of professionalism and fitness.
Lampard - yes, Gerrard, absolutely not.
The number of strikers hitting their peak after the age of 30 would be drastically outnumbered by those that hit it before.
Not to mention the number of them that have been playing solidly since 16.
Injuries see off shit loads before the 30 mark.
That may well be the case, but there aren't many supposedly top strikers who are effectively released at the age of 31. That is how far he has fallen.
Michael Owen is the only other one I can think of, and he had terrible injury problems.
There's a difference between hitting your peak (as many do), still playing well (as even more do) and completely falling off a cliff form and ability wise as Rooney has managed.