Complicated argument this one. I think you have to take loyalty and centimentality out of the equation though.
Football is a business in 2016 and has been for a long time. This is rarely a place for loyalty in the modern game. Ok there are a few examples of loyal players but they are massively the exception. Gerrard stayed at the RS and didn't win a league title. A player of his ability at his peak was easily good enough to win some of the major leagues around Europe. However, Liverpool were just about big enough to keep him. He came close to winning the league a couple of times and also won the CL and domestic cups. I bet if you asked him he would say winning the CL with his hometown club was better than winning the CL and a couple of leagues with say a team like Chelsea. Plus Liverpool had other good players to play around him. When Rooney left Everton in 2004 our 2nd best player was probably Graveson which says a lot. The 04/05 Everton team did end up finishing 4th but there were no signs that they were going to do anything apart from fight relegation when Rooney left.
Le Tissier tends to be the other example but this is slightly different to the Rooney situation as well I think. The mid 90s (when he was at his peak) was a different era to 2004. Players didn't move as quickly back then. Le Tissier had unbelievable ability but was often a lazy player and teams of united's stature weren't in for him (although I believe united were at one point interested). The closest I remember him being to a move was him turning down Spurs at the last minute (hardly the big time). Rooney was a different proposition to Le Tissier. At 18 he was the stand out player in the England team and had bossed an international tournament. Le Tissier never did this. Plus the fact is Le Tissier was a good player and is no doubt fondly remembered by Southampton fans, but that's where it ends. He isn't really talked about outside of England, has no medals/major achievements in the game, and now ebbs out a modest living punditing on some terrible sky tv shows. If anything Le Tissier was a key reason for Rooney wanting to leave Everton. Be a god-like figure in your home town, or become a star who will be admired throughout the world.
The other reason I think loyalty needs to be taken out of the equation is that I don't believe Rooney leaving was entirely one-sided. I don't think Kenwright necessarily wanted to sell him, but I do believe he had to sell him. Our only 2 transfers of note that summer were Marcus Bent and Tim Cahill (less than 3mil combined), and we had already sold Linderoth and Radzinski. At the time I don't believe we could have afforded the contract offered to Rooney (50k a week if I remember right) and it was probably only "offered" to appease the fans. Bill would have known that United would offer considerably more. The whole "crying in Alex Ferguson's office" saga was probably an actor trying to get the best deal possible. I believe Kenwright handled the Rooney saga terribly from start to finish (still does), and by getting too emotional about Things he hindered everything. He should have been honest and said we just couldn't match united ambition, said Rooney wanted to leave, and also said we needed the money to deal with short term finance issues. I know some of the money was reinvested in players but I would say a proportion of the initial chunk went to the banks to keep the wolves from the door.
The reason centementality needs to be taken out of the decision is that Rooney did decide to leave us. He may be an Everton fan but for the last 12 years he has played for Man United, who are something of a rival to EFC. Once you decide to leave centementality goes out of the window for me. Ok, if he'd stayed at EFC until he was 23/24 and then left to get some medals (after doing everything he could for us and failing due to lack of investment elsewhere in the team) I could understand. However, that didn't happen and he left at 18 when the first big club came calling.
So the question, should Everton attempt to sign Rooney?
On the basis of his form over the last 2 seasons I would say: no. He has been flogged week in week out since he was 16. At 31 he is not the athelete he once was and his pace isn't there anymore. I don't believe he is the type to take up yoga, live by a strict diet, and start a new training regime to prolong his career. He drinks, he smokes, and he eats fast food. The modern athlete can't do this after 30 years old and Rooney certainly doesn't have the body type to do this.
Technically he is still a very good footballer and it may be possible that he could be played in the no.10 role (would this help improve Barkley's game?), or he could play in front of the back 4 (but is he better than Barry in the role?). He could also come of the bench to play up front with/instead of Lukaku. He may be 31 and last it, but he's still better than Kone Valencia and Niasse combined!
So from the paragraph above we see that there are possible roles that Rooney could play. However, wages need to be taken into account and at 300k a week (15mil a year) he certainly isn't cheap. If we are going to be spending that amount of money we should be going for younger, better players with potential sell on fees. Ok, Rooney coming back to Everton would be a massive potential marketing opportunity but I don't believe the Everton marketing department have the skill-set to take advantage of Rooney. See the badge fiasco of 2013 (any moron with half a brain could see that was a stupid idea), and the fact that we had foreign players at the peak of their careers like peinar/Howard/Cahill who were all stars in their countries and EFC did nothing from a marketing point of view.
There is also the feeling that Rooney could pass on advice to youth players, he could sort Barkley's head out, and he would for some reason make us unbeatable in merseyside derbies. I've never met Wayne Rooney but I don't think any of the above would happen if he came back to EFC. Big Dunc (90s derby hero) is on our coaching staff and we haven't won a derby since 2010, the basis for him being great with youth players seems to be an interview with Danny Drinkwater and Phil Jones where they said "he was always up for a game of FIFA" (both desperately trying to keep him onside to win favor with the England manager), and I'm not sure if Barkley's head would be any better when he is benched for an aging Wayne Rooney. The problem with Rooney is that although he was a world class footballer I just don't think he is that intelligent and so I doubt he could do much for EFC's current problems. If Rooney came back to Everton I think it would be either a vanity project, a retirement home job, or him wanting to be a big fish in a little pond again. Rooney may be over the hill but he has nothing left to prove as a footballer. He's won everything with United and is England's all time top scorer.
At best I would take him in January on a 6 month loan at 50% of his current wages (united still paying the other half), with potential bonuses to United if he did good things with us. And that would be if Steve Walsh can't think of anyone better who plays in attacking position. What we mustn't do is give him a 3 year deal in the summer. His last big payday curtesy of the team he adandonned when they needed him most.
