Everton don’t need Rooney back

LONDON. – The summer is still young and there are nearly two months to go before the transfer window shuts, but there is no question as to which English Premiership soccer club has done the best business thus far.

Everton have successfully completed a full spine transplant. In goal, they landed the excellent Jordan Pickford from Sunderland for what could be £30 million.

In defence, they matched that fee to take Michael Keane from Burnley. In midfield, they splashed £27million on former Ajax skipper Davy Klaassen and up front, they welcomed prolific Malaga goal scorer Sandro for £5.25million.

So, after all that, do they really need Wayne Rooney?

You can understand the raw appeal of returning the Prodigal Son to Goodison Park. His departure as an 18-year-old to Manchester United in 2004 was a heavy blow to the supporters, the most emphatic reminder of their reduced status. Nearly 20 years after their League and European Cup Winners’ Cup double, they finally had a player capable of taking the club back to the top . . . but they couldn’t keep him.

Now he’s seemingly not wanted at United, can you imagine any better way of alerting the world to their renewed financial strength than by bringing Rooney back into the fold?

But while it makes obvious sense on a sentimental level, and possibly a commercial level if you consider merchandise sales, it’s hard to justify this move for that most old fashioned of motives: football reasons.

Rooney has enjoyed an extraordinary career, breaking records for club and country with impunity and building a collection of trophies, medals and individual honours that would justify an extension to his house. But that is in the past now. And some distance in the past too.

The striker hasn’t scored 20 goals in a season, in all competitions, since 2012. In his last two Premier League campaigns, he’s failed to even hit double figures. While there are still flashes of class evident from time to time, particularly from free kicks, he looks increasingly sluggish on the ball. This is not entirely surprising. While he’s still only 31, he’s been playing regularly since the age of 16 and has notched up some considerable mileage on the clock.

There would be a number of intangible benefits to his arrival. He is, by all accounts, regarded as a popular figure and has considerable influence on younger players, most of whom would have pretended to be him in the playground or, as is increasingly the case, on a games console. The likes of Ross Barkley, Tom Davies and Dominic Calvert-Lewin could learn a lot from Rooney, but for £250 000-a-week you’d expect a little more than a dressing room mentor.

How could Everton justify paying a fortune for a man who was the joint 60th top scorer in the league last season with just five goals? He has adapted his game a little in recognition of his limitations, and it’s worth noting that he contributed five assists last season, while creating a reasonable number of chances (34) and making a reasonable number of key passes (29).

But in this he was bested by Juan Mata, who made the same number of appearances while racking up 44 chances and 41 key passes.

Rooney had two more assists to his name, but that’s not a huge consolation and it’s hard to argue that his performances are going to improve instead of deteriorating further.

Some pundits have argued that Rooney still has much to offer and could show it if he “dropped down a level” but this makes no sense.

By moving to Everton, he’s not dropping down a level at all. He’ll still be tasked with playing 38 Premier League games, the only differences are that he’ll have to play Manchester United twice instead of Everton and that he’ll be doing it with, according to the league table at least, slightly inferior teammates.

If, like John Terry, he moved to Aston Villa, that would be dropping down a level. Playing for Everton would be marginally more difficult, if anything.

There are echoes here of Shaun Wright-Phillips’ return to Manchester City. He had been the brightest of the young stars assembled by former youth academy director Jim Cassell, an effervescent, irrepressible talent who shone in a side of what can diplomatically be called “variable quality” long before their multi-million pound takeover.

City sold him to Chelsea for £21million just less than a year after Everton lost Rooney, and in similar circumstances too.

The Blues offered him what City could not: big money and the chance of silverware. – ESPN.