Source: Daily_Mail
PATRICK COLLINS: Wayne Rooney as a role model? Don¿t put your shirt on it
For Wayne Rooney, the year has passed in a blur of contrasting emotions. On the one hand, a Premier League title was won, a Champions League final was contested and a barren scalp was boldly transplanted. But there were other, less elevated memories.[LNB]There was the diatribe directed at England's fans, following the disastrous World Cup match with Algeria. There was an equally witless outburst in which he swore into a television camera at West Ham.[LNB] Role model? Wayne Rooney gives two fingers to Chelsea fans[LNB]There were the protracted contract negotiations with Manchester United, when he flirted with a move to City before securing a truly mesmerising salary. There were the weeks and months when he was a stumbling stranger to his game. [LNB]And there was that murky saga in a Manchester hotel room, during which he famously proffered ?200 for a packet of Marlboro Lights. [LNB]Despite rediscovering his form and a measure of domestic tranquillity, Rooney emerged in many eyes as a diminished, somewhat seedier, character.[LNB]Yet does that matter? Apparently not. Last week, according to figures from the Premier League, Rooney became officially the most popular footballer in England. And the measure of that popularity is that his name was on the back of more replica shirts than any other player.[LNB]Now, for footballers and, still more, for footballers' agents the ability to sell shirts is a more important asset than pace or touch or a trusty right boot. Shirt sales, at home and abroad, help to determine the size of their 'image rights'.[LNB]They determine whether a player can command, say, ?200,000 each week, or whether he must rub along on perhaps half that sum.[LNB]Rooney may be arrogant, irascible, foul-mouthed and reckless, but he is the player who the kids want to be. And not just the kids. [LNB]The forthcoming season will see thousands upon thousands of United fans trooping down Sir Matt Busby Way to Old Trafford, with a bag of chips in one hand and 'Rooney' draped across their shoulders.[LNB] Hair raiser: Rooney has most recently attracted the tabloids' attention with cutting edge hair treatment[LNB] For Rooney is their role model, defined as 'a person looked to by others as an example to be imitated'. As a role model, it would be quite unfair to blame him for the increasing anarchy in junior football. [LNB]But when a referee is sneeringly abused or a child screeches a mouthful of filth in a moment of stress, then our Wayne must accept his share of the blame.[LNB]He won't, of course, because that's not what footballers do. In the deep, dim recesses of their minds, they realise that they might well be role models but they find it impossible to translate that awareness into intelligent responsibility.[LNB] Fan's favourite: Thanks to heroics like this, more UK fans have Rooney's name printed on their shirts than any other[LNB] They had it spelled out to them a year or so back, when Fabio Capello relieved John Terry of the England captaincy, following Terry's squalid dalliance with the former partner of an erstwhile colleague. [LNB]Capello explained that his commendable decision to demote Terry was born of a belief that 'children look to these players as an example for life'.[LNB]The manager, therefore, appeared sadly ridiculous when he reinstated Terry 13 months later, with the risible explanation: 'I know I said he would never be captain again but you can change your decision.'[LNB] Sordid: Rooney's alleged affair with prostitute Jennifer Thompson was one of many controversial episodes in his recent private life[LNB]Terry, who has amusingly announced that he would one day like to become manager of Chelsea, is not among the top 10 shirt-sellers. [LNB]Neither is his clubmate Ashley Cole; discharger of air rifles, seducer of air hostesses and former spouse of the inexpressibly tedious Cheryl. Neither is Rio Ferdinand, a player of rare talent and rampant libido, the living cliche of the[LNB]England international footballer. And neither, to our immense relief, is Joey Barton. Standards may be low but they have yet to fall that far. [LNB]Yet the adulation of Rooney is genuinely disturbing. He is, beyond dispute, a wonderfully gifted player. [LNB]His ability is obvious, likewise his tenacity. He possesses a ravenous appetite for work and his skills are executed with a precision which is the envy of his contemporaries. [LNB]But his surly indiscipline and his crass excesses are both embarrassing and shameful.[LNB]That such a man can be counted the most popular footballer in England tells us a damaging truth about the national game. [LNB]There were, incidentally, three new entries into the list of players most likely to sell shirts. One is Javier Hernandez, Rooney's striking ally at United. [LNB]Another is Liverpool's Luis Suarez. And a third is another United footballer; a pillar of the parish, a stranger to controversy, a man born to the status of role model. [LNB]For the first time, and at the age of 37, Ryan Giggs has found a place among the elite. You really have to chuckle, because the alternative is far worse.[LNB]A Tour of true heroesThe experts tell us that this year's Tour de France is the finest in decades. [LNB]Certainly it has yielded a glorious crop of incident and surprise, along with almost daily exhibitions of extraordinary heroism.[LNB] A Tour of heroes: Andy Schleck of Luxembourg powers home after a late break away[LNB] For all the excellence of its coverage, television can never adequately capture the suffering these riders undergo. I remember, some years back, toiling up three or four mountains in a rented Volvo, with gears screaming and engine panting.[LNB]The air was thin, the sun hot enough to boil your brains. The whole experience was akin to scaling the interior wall of a blast furnace.[LNB]It would be untrue to suggest that the riders took these conditions in their stride but they attacked their task with nerve and courage.[LNB]I recalled those climbs while watching Andy Schleck, of Luxembourg, make his incredible break last Thursday; his will unbroken, his spirit invulnerable. Of course, the history of drug scandals will always cast its shadow over the Tour and the sport.[LNB] Soldiering on: Dutch cyclist Johnny Hoogerland was left with horrific injuries after a car crash on the Tour[LNB] Yet there remains something sublime about the entire enterprise. It concludes today on the Champs- Elysees, when Paris will embrace the heroes.[LNB]They are, I suspect, the most astonishing people in the wide world of sport.[LNB]Steve Waugh finds himself stumped by lies, damned lies and statisticsImagine a world in which the lie-detector was infallible. At a stroke, we could dispense with judges and juries. [LNB]Jurisprudence would be reduced to a matter of hearing the charge, undergoing the polygraph test and accepting the prescribed sentence. [LNB] Controversial comments: Former Aussie skipper Steve Waugh[LNB]Simple and cheap. George Osborne would leap at it. Steve Waugh, the former cricket captain of Australia, is an admirable character but he is dangerously misguided when he advocates that captains and young players should volunteer to take such tests in order to combat corruption. [LNB]For life is more complicated than that. There is no foolproof method of detecting untruths. If there were, then solicitors would be stacking shelves and barristers digging ditches. In any case, the test constitutes an outrageous assault upon basic liberties. [LNB]A former Australian policeman, after much research, claims that it enjoys '96-98 per cent accuracy'. But how can he know? And what of those who decline to undergo this unscientific examination: will they automatically be deemed guilty?[LNB] Waugh himself has taken the test. He says: 'It went on for two hours and by the end of it I was fairly convinced that if someone had something to hide they would be found out.' [LNB]With absolute respect to Waugh, I suggest that a half-decent lawyer, at the end of a liquid lunch, could dismember that dubious contention inside half-adozen sentences. [LNB]Still, the MCC Cricket Committee chairman Tony Lewis has offered his support. Says Lewis: 'It's a brave lead by Steve Waugh because having his name attached to it [the idea of using lie-detectors] means that it will be taken seriously.' [LNB]Lewis is a good man who means well. But he is wrong. One hundred per cent wrong.[LNB]P.S....With the minimum of publicity, Mo Farah set a British 5,000metres record in Monaco on Friday night. [LNB]His time of 12min 53.11sec was world-class and almost five seconds faster than his previous best. Until now, Farah has been regarded as a useful performer who might reach an Olympic final before being devoured by assorted Africans. Now we must upgrade our expectations. [LNB]No longer a supporting player, Mo has joined the ranks of Olympic favourites. Still, no pressure.[LNB] Manchester United news, features and opinionsNordea Masters leaderboard: Keep up to date with the latest scores on day threeMcIlroy: I hate the weather and I can't wait to get back to America's sunshineClarke heaps more pressure on the R&A to hand The Open to home club Royal PortrushTough conditions leave British hopes hanging by a thread in Vancouver[LNB]
