標題: [討論] Is Wayne Rooney Getting Old? [打印本頁] 作者: cfloo 時間: 2009-7-12 05:22 PM 標題: Is Wayne Rooney Getting Old?
For a while now i've been contemplating this...
Physically, people develop at different speeds. Everyone knows a boy atschool who was 6ft 2 with a beard and unsightly body hair at about 13.He looked like he was 30 and scared people a bit. If you where lucky hewas probably a very nice chap who was actually very self concious aboutbeing called 'Lurch' or BFG. If you where Unlucky he most likely was 30 and you probably shouldn't have stood next to him in PE.
Leonardo Da Vinci, and several other mediterranean artists andphilosophers who had nothing else to do than sit around and ponder suchthings, concluded that a man reaches his physical peak at 27.
In football it's generally accepted that a players peak is 27-29.However this is an average, and as with all averages they have noactual physical embodiment. You have one end of the spectrum, theother, and everything in between and you average them all out to getthe one in the middle. A perfect (if rather bland and indecisive)specimen.
This perfect, if rather bland, specimen has long been considered by arty types to be embodied by Michelangelo's David.If we where looking for a modern day equivalent we'd be foolish to lookany further than our very own (i apologise in advance for this...) Manc-and-anglico's David (...i know)
So lets look at David. Our Perfect, if rather bland man. He rose toprominence in 95 when he was 20 and his career reached its climacticpeak against Greece in 2001, the year he was also voted the 2nd bestplayer in the World for a 2nd time. In this year he was 26.Slightly off i know, but close. At 27 he scored against Argentina andwas widely worshiped as the all knowing Golden testicled God of EnglishFootball.
But David is our centre. Our average. How did we arrive at him?
At one end of the spectrum you have a player like Teddy Sheringham who kept playing at the highest level, despite his unwaveringly terrible haircut, until he was 42
Teddy, our late bloomer, was 27 in 1993. He had just signed for Spursfrom Forest and was a very good, if not exceptional player. Teddy'sathletic and creative peak occured in 2001 when he was voted PFA &FWA footballer of the year. He was 35
So if Teddy is our Right indicator and David is our Steering wheel, who is our Left indicator?...
Well is it possible that its our very own White Pele - Wayne Rooney?
Assuming that Everton didn't play some ghastly trick on the world andsigned up a 30 year old man who'd been hanging around his schools PEchanging room pretendingto be 16, then we're left with the conclusion that Wayne is an an earlybloomer. So far, So known by the world and his dog. But theimplications of this could be alarming for both United and England.
Wayne is the golden chalice, the holy grail we've all waited for sinceGazza went mad. An English football genius who plays for United. But how long does he have left?We bought Wayne for 30 odd million squid because it seemed like a snip.He was 18 and already world class. Surely he'd be tearing up defencesfor another 10-15 years? Maybe Not. Wayne had the Body of a man of 25at 15. He now seems to have the hair of a man of 45 at 23. His actual physical age is probably somewhere in between. Maybe even 29-32.
We've already seen how a sudden rapid change in physique has transformed Ronaldo from the gangly promising talent to the bulked up Adonis like Best Player in the Worldwho can muscle past players and bravely power headers past Romancenturians like a knife through butter. Call me pessimistic but i don'tthink Wayne's due for a growth spurt any time soon.
Regardless of any of this...Wayne is a brilliant player. He's going tobe a lynch pin in our team for many a year to come. My point however isthat, as good as he is, he may not get any better. That 'potential' wehear about may already have been reached....
...And by the time he's 27-29 he may well be greying roundthe temples, groaning when he gets out of a chair and complaining thatit was all so much better in the 'Good Old Days'.
