Loony Rooney

‘LAST summer, Wayne Rooney could do no wrong. He was England’s footballing hero, the type who would make the nation champions.

Rooney – does exactly what it says on the T-shirt

Sure, he was about as photogenic as an angry cold sore, but give the lad a ball and he looked magnificent.

Now, not even one full year on from his sensational explosion onto the big stage in Euro 2004, Rooney is famous for having a shopaholic girlfriend, a penchant for middle-aged prostitutes and a foul mouth.

And it gets worse today as we read on the Sun’s cover: “RAGING ROONEY BEAT ME UP.”

The story goes that while out drinking with some Manchester United team-mates, Rooney was spotted by 22-year-old student Patrick Hanrahan.

“I don’t know why,” says Hanrahan, “but it just popped into my head to say something to Rooney about Everton.”

And..? “I was walking past his group on the way to the toilet and said ‘Once a blue always a blue, eh Wayne?”

The Sun reminds those two or three readers not obsessed with football that this was a jibe about how Rooney pledged his allegiance to Everton just before he left for Manchester United.

And back in the bar, Rooney heard the comment and invited Hanrahan to repeat it. So he did. Which was the trigger for the footballer to go “crazy”, and, allegedly, hit the student three times in the head.

Hanrahan was shaken and reported the incident to the police.

But over on the Mirror’s front page, readers hear an altogether different tale. There, the mouthy student becomes a “thug” (he’s a “drunken fan” in the Star) and Rooney is an innocent, who tells friends: “This man was insulting me. It was disgusting what he was saying, but I never laid a finger on him.”

In the face of the Sun’s version, that’s quite some claim – especially for Rooney, who seems incapable of producing one sentence let alone two without a single expletive.

Which is more than can be said for Hanrahan, who the Mirror says “lunged” at the footballer and “let rip with a volley of abuse”, calling Rooney a “treacherous c***”; or a “f**king traitor”, as the Star has it.

Which all makes it hard for us to know who to believe – the student/thug who went to the police or the angelic footballer out for quiet drink with some mates in a central Manchester bar?

Perhaps the Mirror can produce some photos of the confrontation to clear up this confusing matter…

Paul Sorene is the Anorak’

Posted: 23rd, March 2005 | In: Tabloids Comment | TrackBack | Permalink