Always remember, Wayne Rooney lived the dream

One of the ironies of the Premier League being so hyped through the years is that criticisms and critics of the same league can be guilty of gross exaggeration as well.

Take the case of one of its finest players since its inception in 1992: Wayne Rooney, who turned 31 yesterday. There is little sad about his undoubted decline, as synonymous as those two words tend to be; after the week we’ve seen down in Munster, the word ‘sad’ is something we need to use a lot more sparingly about a decline or a lot else that goes on in sport. But something that this column for one has found rather uneasy about his decline is the glee some seem to have taken in it.

A few weeks ago we were listening to the Last Word on TodayFM in which its host Matt Cooper was almost indignant at the prospect of Rooney somehow starting another game for Manchester United. When he finally got his analyst Mark Lawrenson to concede that it was time United stopped picking him on the basis of past glories and that, yeah, he should be dropped, The Last Word’s anchor almost broke into a chant of Hallelujah.