I\’ve been somewhat uneasy for the last three days.
I’ve kept thinking : We\’re waiting for Wayne.
After seeing Stevie say that his mate Wayne is “a world class playerâ€,
I began to feel an undercurrent of anxiety.
We don’t know what we’ll get from Wayne.
We only know that it’s sheer hell for him to bounce around in training, doing what he was born to do, and then have to sit there, consumed by frustration, watching a match he should be playing in.
He knows why he’s not out there, of course. He sent himself off in Montenegro.
However, Rooney hasn\’t had a good tournament since Portugal, where he was spontaneous and played with mind-boggling flair and power.
When Jorge Andrade crunched into Wayne\’s foot, the Irish Scouser went off injured and suddenly we looked as if we were playing with seven men.
When their new hero was playing off the top of his head in 2004, England were flying and defences were terrified of him. But as soon as the teenager went off, we were stuttering. It was as if four players had gone off. Wayne was the engine and he was also the oil in the engine.
In today\’s tabloid, dumbed-down UK, all the biggest stories are about a small handful of stars or idiot “celebritiesâ€. The editors think we prefer a trivial story about a big name to an interesting story about somebody else.
However, once in a blue moon, I\’ll quote a tabloid headline on ANR.
Today The Sun headline is: WIN AND WE\’LL GO TH-ROO/ Roy : set it up for Wayne.
In The Independent, Jim Lawton\’s column is titled England seem simply to be waiting for Wayne – but should he walk back into the team? If Rooney returns, he must buy into the work ethic of Hodgson’s players.
Last week your favourite dimwit, Theo Walcott, piped up and said, If we win the first two games, Rooney might not get back in the team. He said that because Rooney does not pass to Walcott.
Myself, I can\’t wait to see Oxlade play with Wayne.
I\’ve said that before and I have to say it again now. I can\’t wait to see Alex Oxlade –Chamberlain play with Wayne Rooney. I reckon they can spark together because they\’re both fast, two-footed and inventive, so they might excite me the way Harry Kewell & Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink used to do at Leeds, or the way Eidur Gudjohnsen & JFH did at Chelsea.
Of course Rooney will come back for the Ukraine game.
Why else would Roy Hodgson have taken him?
But, if you look at this England team, Oxlade played against France because Rooney was suspended.
Ox was in because Roo was out.
When Rooney comes back, I think Ashley Young will switch back to the left wing. Ox will come on from the bench, I reckon.
But it all depends on what happens between now and Tuesday at 7.45.
Football is a day-to-day business. Any player can get injured or ill on any day. And we haven\’t played Sweden yet.
All Group games on Matchday 3 will kick off at 7.45 pm.
So Sweden v France is at 7.45 pm on Tuesday as well.