by Ray Burke

Created on: October 22, 2010

Rooney has to earn his Spurs

Days ago, Wayne Rooney looked set to leave Manchester United. But, just as the proverbial ink had dried on this piece, Wayne Rooney did a spectacular U-turn and signed a new 5-year deal to stay at Manchester United. But this story will not die straight away and it will be debated for months on end. So, what could have happened if Wayne Rooney had left Man Utd?

Rooney’s announcement that he wanted to leave was shock news even if he was having alleged rows with his manager Sir Alex Ferguson. While Ferguson had said he wanted Rooney to stay and reiterated his support for the 24 year old, Rooney, it seemed wanted a move away from the team that had sold such stellar stars like Ruud Van Nistleroy and David Beckham following downturns in their relationship with Ferguson and lost stars such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez. Rooney felt the new owners, the Glazer family, had not done enough to replace this talent over the years and were not investing or competing enough to buy or nurture such talent. Rooney wants to win things and if Man Utd could not match his ambitions then he would have gone.

But where could Rooney have gone? There was, and is, a feeling that he could only go to Real Madrid or Barcelona on the continent or to Chelsea or Manchester City, domestically. Anything else would look like a step down in class. Real would have been more realistic as a few select Premier League players had arrived there in the past, including Van Nistleroy, Beckham, and Rooney’s current team mate, Michael Owen. But Rooney is hardly a continental-type player with patience and flair. He is a brute force player with some finesse more suited to the English leagues, thus Chelsea or Man City may have been the logical choice with the financial power to back him. But another option could have been considered; what about Tottenham Hotspur?

It would have been a long shot, but Spurs manager, Harry Redknapp had been hinting and bandying Rooney’s name about during the past week. Harry may be a wheeler-dealer, but would this have been a deal too far? Having just obtained the highly-prized services of Dutchman Rafael Van der Vaart for a bargain £8 million, which has seen the fortunes of Spurs change for the better, maybe Rooney might have felt this is a team on the up. Further, when Redknapp took over at Spurs they were in the bottom three of the Premiership and ripe for relegation. But Harry saved them and took Spurs into the Champions

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