IMAGINE what the headlines would have been if Wayne Rooney had refused to have a couple of drinks with the wedding party sharing his hotel on Saturday night, and had rebuffed their repeated requests for a photograph. “England skipper snubs happy couple”. Or perhaps in The Sun, “Roo’s up his own backside?”

Instead, we’ve been subjected to a week of sanctimonious outrage and indignant moral grandstanding from critics who have presumably never taken the opportunity to let off a bit of steam.

Rooney, led no doubt by his terrified advisers, worried their lucrative take of his endorsements might be in jeopardy, felt compelled to throw on the sackcloth and ashes and issue a public apology. Wayne “fully recognises that the images are inappropriate for someone in his position” say his management company. What complete and utter nonsense.


Let’s get down to the basics here. After a difficult few months, Rooney spent Saturday deservedly reflecting on a job well done, having played an influential role in England’s World Cup qualifying win over Scotland.

Having picked up a minor niggle, he knew he would not be involved in the following week’s game against Spain. He had a light training session the following morning, but nothing more strenuous than that.

His employers gave him permission to have a night to himself, indeed members of the FA’s entourage are even reported to have been with him at the bar at The Grove. He had a few drinks. Then he had a few more.

By 5am, he was well and truly inebriated, so after spending a couple of hours socialising with a wedding party,  by which point he was, get this, ‘slurring his words’, he decided to take himself to bed. Cue widespread condemnation.

The response to the publication of photographs showing Rooney in a drunken state says much about the way in which our society currently operates. We should be allowed to do what we want, but the minute anybody in a vaguely public position steps even marginally out of line, we come down on them like a tonne of bricks. ‘They have a responsibility to behave better,’ goes the cry. As if someone like Rooney has signed a lengthy tick-list of things they’re no longer allowed to do because they play football.

The Northern Echo:

Rooney got drunk, just like a generation of footballers did before him, and just like a generation of rugby players, cricketers, Olympians, pop stars, movie actors, politicians and, yes, journalists do every weekend of the year now. It isn’t big, and it isn’t particularly clever, but you know what, sometimes ordinary human beings err from the path of abstinence.

Plenty of those who are currently condemning Rooney go misty-eyed when they talk about football’s ‘good old days’, a time when the England captain’s actions would have been not only common-place, but actively encouraged.

Brian Clough with his, “You’ll stay in here until it’s all been drunk” approach to team bonding. Arsenal’s title winners, who couldn’t really tackle a training session unless they were stinking of booze. Ah, but it was alright back then. They were ‘characters’.

Rooney, on the other hand, is a ‘role model’, with all the nonsensical drivel that supposedly entails. So rather than applauding the fact that an England captain is willing to openly engage with supporters and mix socially in a public environment, he’s pilloried for not teaching impressionable youngsters that drinking alcohol is wrong. Because clearly that should be his job rather than that of the under-funded Department of Health.

Should Rooney have to live by a stricter moral code because he’s wearing the England captain’s armband? Perhaps in certain circumstances, but when it comes to relaxing in a sanctioned environment, he should be free to do as he chooses.

And let’s be honest here. He didn’t start a fight or brag oafishly about his wealth. He didn’t abuse anyone or behave inconsiderately. He didn’t take three girls back to his room or indulge in anything that was illegal. He had a few too many glasses of red wine, and probably woke up the following morning with a headache as a consequence.

Ah, the moralising masses continue, but he’s supposed to be a professional sportsman. No wonder Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi have outperformed him during his career if he’s carrying on like that.

Well first, there are plenty of pictures on the internet of Messi in a state of drunken delirium if you want to look for them. He’s still scoring goals for Barcelona though, so he can get away with it.

The Ronaldo comparison has been levelled at Rooney throughout his career, but it is a ridiculous barometer of any footballer’s relative success. Just because the pair were at a broadly similar standard at a broadly similar age, does that mean their careers should inevitably have gone in parallel?

The Northern Echo:

As a youngster, Rooney’s game was all about explosive power, so it is hardly a surprise that injuries have been an issue throughout his career and his effectiveness has become blunted over time. To suggest he is no longer as good as he once was because he enjoys a drink every now and then is spurious in the extreme.

Rooney is no longer the player we want him to be, indeed apart from a brief unforgettable spell at Euro 2004, he has never quite been the player we all imagined he would become, and that for me is the crux of this week’s criticism.

We feel like he has somehow let us down. He should have been the talisman leading England to World Cup or European Championship glory; instead he will retire shortly as just another fleeting talent that never quite lived up to his potential.

So we search frantically for sticks to beat him with. It justifies his failings, and somehow makes us feel better about ourselves because we can claim the moral high ground. ‘Look at him’, we’re saying. ‘Had it all, then didn’t look after himself and threw it away’.

It doesn’t matter that it’s nonsense, say it often enough, and condemn enough of his acts, and in this ‘post-truth world’ it still becomes true.

So Rooney is pigeon-holed as a drunken oaf, and the moaning majority move on to their next target. What’s that? Ah yes, footballers who don’t live in the real world and are getting so much money they don’t understand what normal people do on a Saturday night…