Charlie Webster - Rooney exit is all about money

Published: 22 Oct 2010 - 10:08:25

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I find the whole Wayne Rooney 'saga' as Sir Alex Ferguson has called it absolutely fascinating, not just from a football point of view but from a media stand point too, especially as this is the field I work in.

I think being in the media I look at things like this through slightly different coloured specs. A lot of the time I see what goes on from the inside and can often see how the media and publicity is used in modern football to manipulate (maybe that word is too harsh) but most definitely deeply influence our opinion as football fans and especially the fans of the club the issue is centered around, in this case Manchester United.

So take Sir Alex, he is a master of mind games and I'd go as far to call him a publicity expert. He's one of the few managers in the world, never mind just the Premier League, that is totally ingrained in the club and has little issue with manager/player power. He has demonstrated a few times that no player is bigger than the club.

His press conference was a magnificent showing of how he has got this business all down to a fine art. He did well to seem bemused, said he was kept in the dark and appeared shocked just like everyone else over Rooney's outburst.

Result, the fans are on Fergie's side and completely behind Manchester United. However, if you think about it, Sir Alex is not the type of guy who will have been in the dark about this.

From the fans point of view, it is their club and it means the world to them. I'd be exactly the same if there was a situation with my team, not that there would be such a high profile player at my club, in the immediate future anyway!

Any football supporter worth their salt gets behind their team through thick or thin. So take Rooney, he insists that his reasoning for wanting to leave the club is his concern over United's ability to attract the world's best players. Cleverly Rooney and his agent are blaming the easiest targets of them all, the Glazers and the debt that not many people actually understand, two good things to hide behind.

I'm not saying I agree with this but from Rooney's point of view, football is his job. Of course he loves football but it is a short career and he wants to maximise his earning potential, just like any of us would.

He's left his boyhood club, Everton, he's not a Paul Scholes or a Ryan Giggs, he wants to achieve and gain financially. If you ask me, his motivation is monetary. No judgement at all, just stating what I think is a fact.

If you think of it in a slightly different way, he's a doctor and he gets offered more money at another hospital after a decent time at his current one. Is there anything wrong with him moving to the new hospital for more money? Just a thought.

There have been so many recent examples of clubs and players actively using the media to try and get what they want. Real Madrid's unsettling of Ronaldo and several Barcelona players this summer saying they'd love Cesc Fabregas to come home and play for them.

More than anything it demonstrates how much things have changed, of course this all went off before but previously it went off behind closed doors not publicly.

Now Rooney will leave, he wouldn't be able to stay even if he wanted to as the unrest and divide in the changing rooms would affect too many things. The players are hurt by what the striker has said. I know from my time at Real Madrid that a split changing room, no matter how many stars and talent there are in it, does not work.

So as I write this a decision or rather an announcement to the public has yet to be made, but if you were going to ask me I'd be telling you Rooney will be swapping colours and also moving to the other side of the City, if you get my drift.

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