Wayne Rooney recently began his fledging career in football management with MLS side DC United, but it seems like only yesterday that he was a prodigious 16-year-old lighting up Goodison Park.
An exciting and precocious teenage talent, Wayne Rooney’s fearlessness made top class opposition appear ordinary, and announced himself to world football with a last-minute winner against 30-game unbeaten Arsenal in October 2002, accompanied by an iconic piece of Clive Tyldesley commentary.
The Croxteth-born star’s eventual departure to Manchester United in the summer of 2004 remains one of the most contentious transfers in the club’s history, but in a candid interview with Toffee TV, the former Everton forward insists that a deal between Everton and Chelsea was almost agreed without his knowledge.
Rooney said, “From my point of view, ideally, I would have liked to have stayed for another year and see where we went from there. When the [2003/04] season finished, the club had tried to do a deal with Chelsea for me, without me knowing.
“When I found out, I was fuming. I remember speaking with my agent and telling him that if they’re going to sell me, I should have a say in where I go.”
Rooney’s switch to Old Trafford saw the England international go from hero to villain amongst Evertonians, though if the 37-year-old’s words are to be believed, it seems doubtful that he would have stayed at Everton even if he wanted to, with the club seemingly intent on cashing in.
Rooney continued, “I don’t want to go to Chelsea. I didn’t want to leave at the time but once I knew they were trying to sell me, I thought ‘okay’.”
It’s difficult not to feel as though Evertonians were robbed of a true modern great, and instead were forced to watch the academy graduate become a Manchester United legend.
A return to Goodison Park in 2017 proved ultimately to be unsuccessful, leaving us once more to ponder what could have been.