Wayne Rooney is a great who spread 'gold dust' among team-mates - now we'll see if he can...

[ASFN Admin]

And so it did end for Wayne Rooney at the relatively modest environment of the Riverside Stadium in a dismal defeat in the Championship to Middlesbrough. In a strange sense it is exactly how he would have wanted it. Not the 3-0 loss suffered by Derby County last November which we now know was his 883rd and final appearance as a player but the fact that right up until the last day Rooney was authentic; he wanted to contribute, to play, to do his best for the team. That dispiriting loss was part of Rooney’s audition for the job as Derby’s manager and it is to his credit that afterwards he swiftly realised that he was going to flunk it if he attempted to combine playing with the next stage. It may surprise some to hear that such an instinctive, raw footballer always harboured ambitions to go into coaching and management but he did and was never afraid to speak about it. During an appearance on Sky Sports Monday Night Football a couple of years ago that ambition was more apparent to the world as he spoke engagingly about Sir Alex Ferguson, Harry Kane and a variety of topics in an impressive punditry debut. It was far removed from the shy, mumbling and occasionally angry public face that many associated with him. The day has now come to officially move on and, at 35, the manner of Rooney’s understated departure is certainly in stark contrast to the way he exploded onto the scene. Only Paul Gascoigne, in living memory, had the kind of arresting impact that Rooney made in the sense that there had been hushed whispers in football circles that someone very special was on the way. There are valid comparisons too between Rooney and Gascoigne’s backgrounds, approach to football and that unique man-child physicality - and yes, also finesse - they both possessed. Rooney will go down as a great. The numbers, the achievements alone dictate that. He retires as the all-time leading goal-scorer for England, with 53 goals in 120 caps, and for Manchester United, with 253 goals in 559 games, taking both attainments from Sir Bobby Charlton in confirmation of their magnitude. There were honours galore - five Premier League titles, the Champions League, Europa League, Club World Cup, FA Cup and three League Cups – all won during his 13 seasons at United along with a host of individual honours.

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