Wayne Rooney has been making the headlines for the past few weeks now. The former Manchester United striker was embroiled in a bizarre little ‘virtual feud’ with his former teammate Cristiano Ronaldo following his dramatic interview with Piers Morgan.
Ronaldo admitted his displeasure toward being criticized by the DC United manager over the course of this season.
The Portuguese forward hinted that it may be because Rooney is ‘jealous of his good looks’ and because he is still playing at the top level when the Englishman – who is two years younger than him – is now retired from football.
Rooney, to his credit, has taken the shocking remarks from Cristiano – which included him being hinted to be a ‘rat’ at one point of the interview – pretty well.
He has refused to clap back at him with similar controversial comments that might have helped him make the mainstream headlines even more.
The Englishman is currently acting as a pundit during the Qatar World Cup, with his DC United side not being involved in any action due to the World Cup break.
Rooney might not be the hothead he was once upon a time when he used to lose his temper very easily and lash at out at opposition players with wonder goals or aggressive tackles.
But he still has a very straightforward nature to him, which results in him not sugar-coating with his criticism.
The ex-United captain has now caught the fans’ attention with some brutal comments about his initial stint of starting out as a professional footballer with Everton.
Rooney broke through in the Premier League with the Toffees as a teenager.
He made his debut at the age of 16 and soon went on to become their youngest-ever goal-scorer. His first Premier League goal, of course, is the famous long-range curler against Arsenal.
Recently in an interview with Toffee TV – an Everton fan Youtube channel – Rooney was asked about how he felt about his debut.
Particularly, he was asked about his feelings about sharing a dressing room with some of the top players at Everton during that period.
His response was brutal, as he said: “It’s mad how quick it changed. For me to go in with Duncan [Ferguson], Stubbsy [Alan Stubbs] and all of them… to then go and play with them and train with them every day, so quickly I remember thinking ‘these are crap’.
“Obviously not all of them, but some of the players I was thinking, ‘what’s going on here?’I couldn’t believe how bad some of them were. I remember thinking ‘I’m better than all these players’.
“That’s not disrespecting to them players but some of them just weren’t good enough and should never have played for Everton.”
This is quite the indictment of Everton’s situation at the time of Rooney’s time.
It has been taken in good stride by most football fans and pundits, with many seeing the funny side of it because of just how blunt the Englishman is with his assessment of his former side.
Rooney’s comments for Everton might even reflect on their current squad, with the Toffees having barely avoided relegation from the Premier League last season and sitting in 17th place right now, just one point clear of the relegation zone.
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