Wayne Rooney - Wayne Rooney - My Decade in the Premier League

COVER

TITLE PAGE

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

FOREWORD BY SIR ALEX FERGUSON

INTRODUCTION

1 DESIRE

2 HOME

3 CARRINGTON

4 PAYBACK

5 GRAFT

6 PRESSURE

7 CHANGE

8 CHAMPIONS

9 EUROPE

10 SACRIFICE

11 MOSCOW

12 DEBUT

13 MANCHESTER

14 RIVALS

15 FACT!

16 NIGHTMARE

17 PASSION

18 PAIN

19 CONTROVERSY

20 FAMILY

21 OFFICE

22 MARGINS

EPILOGUE

PLATE SECTION

ABOUT WAYNE ROONEY

ABOUT MATT ALLEN

COPYRIGHT

ABOUT THE PUBLISHER

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS COVER TITLE PAGE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS FOREWORD BY SIR ALEX FERGUSON INTRODUCTION 1 DESIRE 2 HOME 3 CARRINGTON 4 PAYBACK 5 GRAFT 6 PRESSURE 7 CHANGE 8 CHAMPIONS 9 EUROPE 10 SACRIFICE 11 MOSCOW 12 DEBUT 13 MANCHESTER 14 RIVALS 15 FACT! 16 NIGHTMARE 17 PASSION 18 PAIN 19 CONTROVERSY 20 FAMILY 21 OFFICE 22 MARGINS EPILOGUE PLATE SECTION ABOUT WAYNE ROONEY ABOUT MATT ALLEN COPYRIGHT ABOUT THE PUBLISHER

There are so many people who have helped and worked alongside me to make my Premier League dream become a reality. First and foremost my parents and family have played a massive role in getting me where I am today.

All the coaches and managers I have worked with since being a young lad, my agent Paul Stretford and the people who work alongside him, and all my team mates and friends in and out of the game: thanks for being there. But through working on this book and reflecting on the highs and lows of the last 10 years there are two people who merit specific mention.

To my wife Coleen, thanks for being there through the rough and the smooth; you will never know how much your love and support means to me. To my son Kai, you’re my first thought in the morning and you give me my last smile at the end of the day. I love you both so much, you’re my inspiration and my motivation every single day.

Thanks for everything.

Love,

Wayne (and Daddy) xxx

COVER TITLE PAGE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS FOREWORD BY SIR ALEX FERGUSON INTRODUCTION 1 DESIRE 2 HOME 3 CARRINGTON 4 PAYBACK 5 GRAFT 6 PRESSURE 7 CHANGE 8 CHAMPIONS 9 EUROPE 10 SACRIFICE 11 MOSCOW 12 DEBUT 13 MANCHESTER 14 RIVALS 15 FACT! 16 NIGHTMARE 17 PASSION 18 PAIN 19 CONTROVERSY 20 FAMILY 21 OFFICE 22 MARGINS EPILOGUE PLATE SECTION ABOUT WAYNE ROONEY ABOUT MATT ALLEN COPYRIGHT ABOUT THE PUBLISHER

There were plenty of eyebrows raised when I persuaded Manchester United’s board of directors to sanction a multimillion pound move to try to prise away Wayne Rooney from Everton.

The lad was still only eighteen, but he had already shown in the two years he’d been in Everton’s first team that he was a rare talent.

The Everton backroom staff had done a marvellous job nurturing the youngster through their academy to the day he made his debut for the first team when still some weeks short of his seventeenth birthday.

Long before he made his bow for the senior side everybody in the game was well aware that Everton had unearthed a little gem, and it didn’t take him long to announce his arrival on the big stage.

Everton were Wayne’s club as a schoolboy, so we can only imagine how he felt to pull on that famous royal blue shirt and run out to the roar of the Goodison Park crowd.

It wasn’t a surprise that he took to first team football with the minimum of fuss. Wayne Rooney was born to play football and it was plain to see from the outset that his future as a major figure in the game was assured.

We were under no illusions that it would take anything other than a very, very large cheque if we were to tempt Everton into agreeing to let Wayne make the short move up the M62.

I suppose everyone has their price and eventually we managed to negotiate a deal with Everton to secure the services of the finest young player of his generation.

There’s no question that it was a gigantic amount of money we paid for a player who hadn’t long been eligible to vote, but we knew what we were doing.

Every so often a player comes along who is a racing certainty to make the grade as a professional, and Wayne Rooney was one of those.

It wasn’t a gamble, it was an investment in the future, and there can be no doubt that the lad from Croxteth proceeded to pay off that outlay numerous times in the years that followed.

If anyone had any lingering doubts regarding our decision then they were almost instantly and conclusively dispelled when he scored a hat-trick on his debut in a Champions League group match against Turkish club Fenerbahçe at Old Trafford. Talk about starting the repayments early!

It wouldn’t have bothered me if he’d taken weeks to score his first goal for us, but I’ve got to say I was overjoyed that he hit the ground running in classic style.

The rivalry between Manchester and Liverpool has been well documented over the years, but here was one Scouser who had immediately become an adopted Mancunian.

That was just the first few lines in a marvellous story that has continued to unfold during his career with Manchester United. He has become one of the mainstays of the club and is generally recognised as one of the finest players of the Premier League and Champions League era.

Wayne has also along the way ironed out the self-discipline problems he had as a youngster. Once looked upon as petulant and always likely to get in hot water with the authorities, he is now a reformed individual who sets the standards for the rest of the team.

It takes strength of character to overcome those types of personal traits, but he dug deep and eradicated what was a counter-productive part of his make-up.

Then there was his little wobble in the autumn of 2010, when he announced that he wanted to up sticks and leave Old Trafford.

I was shocked, and not a little disappointed, but it didn’t take long to set him straight on that little matter and soon enough he was putting pen to paper on an extended contract.

I’m not about to say what was said between us during our discussions at that time, but I knew from the start that his heart was still with Manchester United and that all wasn’t lost as we set about showing him the error of his thinking. Wayne Rooney has it within his grasp to carve for himself a very special place in the history of Manchester United.

He has already started overtaking long-standing club records, and with age on his side there are no limits to what he can achieve before the time comes for him to call it a day.

I’d like to think I’ve made one or two good decisions during my time in football – and a few I’d rather forget! – but there is no question that the signing of Wayne Rooney from Everton is right up there with the best of them.

COVER TITLE PAGE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS FOREWORD BY SIR ALEX FERGUSON INTRODUCTION 1 DESIRE 2 HOME 3 CARRINGTON 4 PAYBACK 5 GRAFT 6 PRESSURE 7 CHANGE 8 CHAMPIONS 9 EUROPE 10 SACRIFICE 11 MOSCOW 12 DEBUT 13 MANCHESTER 14 RIVALS 15 FACT! 16 NIGHTMARE 17 PASSION 18 PAIN 19 CONTROVERSY 20 FAMILY 21 OFFICE 22 MARGINS EPILOGUE PLATE SECTION ABOUT WAYNE ROONEY ABOUT MATT ALLEN COPYRIGHT ABOUT THE PUBLISHER

Bang!

Everything goes dead mad, dead quick.

Then that feeling kicks in – an unbelievable feeling of satisfaction that I get from scoring a goal in the Premier League. Like the sensation I get whenever I’ve smashed a golf ball flush off the face of the club and watched it trickle onto the green.

It’s a high – a mad rush of power.

It’s a wave of emotion – but it takes me over like nothing else.

This feeling of putting one away for Manchester United is huge, selfish, nuts. I reckon if I could bottle the buzz, I’d be able to make the best energy drink ever.