The decline of Wayne Rooney as a footballing force isn’t confined to this season; his form has been in freefall for at least three years now. While he may be England’s all-time leading scorer, and just three shy of holding the same record for Manchester United, Wayne Rooney is a shadow of the manchild who arrived at Old Trafford back in 2004.
We’re less than a week away from the North American release date of FIFA 17, and EA Sports is cranking up the anticipation levels to 11 with the debut of the official television spot for the game.
It’s an advertisement you’re sure to see a fair amount of times over the coming months, but we don’t think you’ll be bothered by that. In many ways, it’s a sort of homage to Manchester United with “The Journey’s” main character, the fictional Alex Hunter, sporting United’s famous red.
Sportsmail, the online sports section of the British tabloid newspaper Daily Mail, has revealed another ‘hippy crack’ storm surrounding Aston Villa and England youth international Jack Grealish. Our feelings concerning this issue can be nicely summarized by this Villa supporters poll:
For Manchester United’s 659 million fans, it’s a chance to dream. They’re just one step away from an appearance in the English Football League Cup quarterfinals. It’ll take another performance like the spirited one that saw off the mighty Cobblers of Northampton Town, but things are looking up following a week that consisted of one fresh hell after another.
A glance at the current Premier League table reveals an improvement of sorts for Chelsea. Their catastrophic title defense last season resulted in them finishing 10th, while their defense, so renowned for their frugality, shipped 53 goals — more than 15th-place Crystal Palace.
This season, Antonio Conte has been charged with returning Chelsea to their domineering displays of old. The problem for Conte is that Chelsea are nowhere near their peak personnel wise. John Terry, while still a force, will turn 36 in December.
One of the most fun things about the EFL Cup is when big clubs get upended by Championship and lower-level clubs, like Everton going down to Norwich City earlier today. Watching giants get humbled by minnows is a delight to everyone not a fan of that particular giant, and it's of particular amusement to fans of giants that made it through to the next round.
Apparently, after twelve seasons with the Red Devils, the bell has finally rung for Wayne Rooney.
Every once in a while, we can still catch glimpses of the old Rooney, making a difference in critical moments of a close game for United. And yet, despite those few moments of genius, Rooney is plain and simply playing badly.
His start of the Premier League season was a flash of hope for United supporters as he scored in the opening game against Bournemouth and dished assists on the two subsequent outings.
Week five of the English Premier League is now behind us, and the ‘club in crisis’ tag can already be firmly affixed to Manchester United. After starting the season with three successive victories, things have quickly come undone over a brief period of eight days for Jose Mourinho and his charges.