The bolded bit...
Yeah 31 isnt that old. Its also worth mentioning that he has been playing top flight football week in and week out for 15 odd years. That's with international tournaments thrown in.
He is not a Pirlo or anyone like that. His game was predominantly based on his work rate and power. That looks to have gone already, and although he was always a gifted player its not like he was a player who made an extra yard in his head or anything.
It "could" work. Could is a big word here though. For all the (quite frankly bizarre) warm and fuzzy feeling regarding the prodigal son returning what to you suspect will happen if he fails to catch fire straight out of the gate? All of a sudden he is no longer "once a blue always a blue Wayne Rooney" he turns into "badge kissing manc tosser Wayne Rooney."
It is a massive risk. I don't think a lot of us realize just how divisive it could be.
Think you are doing him a disservice there to be fair. You are right that he was known initially for raw talent, pace and power, but he has always, from the word go, had the brain and the touch to go with it. Comparing him to Barkley for example, he is in a different galaxy as to how he sees and reads the game.
The worst part of Rooneys game, if you can call it that, is that he is completely selfless and for years, has always done what's best for the team. For someone of his natural talent and ability to play the number of positions he has, with the irregularity he has, and without making a big stink about it, for a team who he has only a professional interest in, shows what type of player you will be getting. Granted, he was paid handsomely for it, but there's others who would use his level of power and sway to dictate, and he hasn't.
In terms of the 15 years of top level football he's played, I would say you could ignore the last few years at united, because for one reason or another, he has hardly been at the forefront of anything there. This is largely been down to the political quagmire, based on them giving him a contract they did not want to give, a face saving exercise as they faced losing their star player during an already turbulent transitional period, with 3 new managers, and a fall from grace as their last great team ebbed away.
People talk about the stats, I'd be interested to see how many times Rooney has played, consecutively, from the start, in 1 position (a favoured position), since Fergusons final year. Even in that year, the seeds were already sewn with their huge public bust up.
But all that leads me to say, is that we will hopefully be getting a fresh, newly motivated, passionate Wayne Rooney, signing for us on a free transfer, at 31, still 4 years younger than Ibrahimovic.
Anyone arguing with that deal is simply still bitter over the way he left. Which is fair enough to a point, I can understand people not wanting him back because of that. But not because he's not still a top player, because he is.
And as devastated as I was was when he did leave, I for one cannot wait to see him back in a Blue shirt again.
