After doughnut gate with David De Gea last week at Tesco’s in Altrincham, where, according to the Sun, he didn’t just walk out with the doughnut but “swaggered” out with it. I’d love to see what David De Gea looks like, swaggering around eating a doughnut. Wayne Rooney, never one to be outdone, last night got sent off in Montenegro in an incident in which City & England goalkeeper and also good pal of Rooneys, Joe Hart, correctly described as pathetic. Reading this mornings press, you’d think that England had just been knocked out of the European Championships, not just qualified for next years finals in Poland and the Ukraine. I thought what Rooney did last night was plain daft but the way the fourth estate have reported on it, you’d have thought he’d commited treason. Whilst it’s unfortunate that Rooney’s gonna be missing for at least one match in the Euro’s, is it really such a catastrophe that the loss of one excellent player could cause such disruption to the English chances of success next summer ? If England cannot replace Rooney for an important match then it’s a huge indictment on the quality of players available to Fabio Cappello and by association, English football itself.
The timing of Rooney’s sending off was ironic to say the least. Of all the weeks to get sent off, he had to do it in the week his father and uncle had been arrested in the Steve Jennings case which is just coming to the fore in Scotland, where he’s been accused of getting deliberately sent off in a match involving Motherwell and Heart of Midlothian. The funniest thing about that was, only the Daily Mirror had the bottle to use the obvious available innuendo regarding the weeks events. In regards to press attention, one thing that will inadevertently help Rooney is that the English rugby team, this morning, unexpectedly lost in Auckland to the one team the London media hate losing to, the french. With the England rugby players over the last couple of weeks indulging in the heinous pursuits of going out for a pint, chatting up girls and now, losing to France, this should turn the media’s poison away from Rooney and onto the rugby team. The one bit of good news from last nights matches is that there’s no reported injuries to any Unted players.
This week has also seen the announcement that the giant that is Gordon McQueen has been diagnosed with cancer of the larynx. A powerful, rumbustious and imposing centre half who was a stellar part of the United team when I first started going in 1981. A top man off the pitch as much as he was a collusus on it, my prayers are with him, get well soon big fella.