Silly grudges? You can appreciate Rooney and still think he doesn't warrant a statue you know. As you do with many other ex United players.
As ever there's no middle ground with Rooney enthusiasts.
I'm no Rooney enthusiast, not at all. But the stick he's getting is ridiculous. He's not just any ex United player. Let's look at som facts, shall we?
He's our all time leading goal scorer, captain for many years, leading goalscorer for the English NT, he's spent 13 or so years at the club, 6th in games played. He's been the talisman of English football for most of his career. All while playing for Manchester United, the biggest club in the world.
Adding to that, he's won the league 5 times, 1 FA cup, 2 league cups (soon to be 3?), 1 champions league (with another 2 finals). Add to this all of his individual honors, probably a few dozen.
I realize he's a polarizing figure. I realize his antics from a few years ago are difficult to forget about (and they shouldn't be forgotten either), but he's a club legend no matter how you put it.
People keep saying that "any striker spending more than a decade at the club could've/should've beaten the goal scoring record", but that's not really the case is it? His goals to games ratio is 0.458, which on its own is very good. Better than King Eric, better than Sir Bobby, better than George Best, better than Andy Cole, better than Cristiano Ronaldo (at United ofc). Robin van Persie has a better ratio, but he only lasted a few seasons. RVN had a great ratio, but his last two season were significantly worse than his best, stats wise. Denis Law could've done it, but he left for City.
The goalscoring record stood for 44 years for a reason. Absolutely fantastic achievment to break it, but people keep playing it down simply because it's Rooney. Heck, he didn't even play as a striker for half of his time here.
That said, maybe Rooney shouldn't have gotten as many games as he did. Maybe we should have let him go a few years back. But you can't blame that on him.
People might disagree with him deserving a statue, that's fine. But, in 20-30-40 years, he'll be remembered as an all time great, a true legend. People are blinded by the fact that Rooney is no longer the player he was 5 years ago, and fail to give him the credit he deserves. I agree we shouldn't build a statue
today. But with time, in a decade or two, he'll be as deserving as anyone.
/rant