Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney knows it will be impossible
to please Sir Alex Ferguson and Fabio Capello for the rest of the
season.
Rooney's four-goal haul against Hull on Saturday swept
Manchester United to the summit of the Premier League - the third
team in a week to hold the top spot - and took him to within a
hat-trick of his best-ever seasonal tally as a professional.
Almost immediately, the 24-year-old began looking forward to
a crunch week that starts with the eagerly-awaited Carling Cup
decider with Manchester City on Wednesday before United visit
Arsenal for what would be a first-versus-second Premier League
blockbuster if present positions remain unaltered.
Ferguson knows he needs his talisman. Back home in Italy
where he is recovering from knee surgery, Fabio Capello will glory
in Rooney's achievements whilst secretly wishing his number one
striker could take a break.
"I am sure the two of them have different ideas for me for
the rest of the season," smiled Rooney, after the fourth hat-trick
of his United career and the second this term.
"But I want to play and whenever I am asked to play I will.
"Even when the manager (Ferguson) tells me when he is giving
me a rest I will want to play. But I will have to be sensible."
What would be good for Capello is impossible for Ferguson.
There is no chance of Ferguson taking Rooney out of the
firing line for a prolonged period given his importance to United
at present.
When Cristiano Ronaldo left for Real Madrid last summer,
Ferguson questioned where United were going to get the additional
30 goals the former world player of the year was virtually
guaranteed to get.
Rooney is supplying them, just as he felt would happen.
"I am a confident person," he said.
"I have had responsibility on me since I signed so it was not
extra pressure.
"When Cristiano left I knew I would have to score more goals.
"As a team we are doing that. Everybody is chipping in and,
so far, we have scored more than last season."
The one on-pitch frustration for United was that it took them
an hour and a quarter to get a second once Rooney had opened their
account by netting the rebound after Paul Scholes' piledriver had
been too hot to handle for Boaz Myhill.
Positives were plentiful.
Aside from Rooney, Rio Ferdinand completed the full 90
minutes of his comeback after a three-month absence and produced an
assured defensive display.
On only his fifth league start Michael Owen caught the eye,
even if he failed to take a couple of decent chances, while Nani
produced possibly his best display since joining the Red Devils for
£17million from Sporting Lisbon in 2007, creating Rooney's
second and third goals before substitute Dimitar Berbatov set up a
fourth.
"I am happy with my performance," said Nani.
"It was good to create the goals for Wayne because he is such
a fantastic player.
"When you see your striker score four goals it gives us all
confidence because we know we have someone who can score every
game."
There is an undercurrent though that goes far beyond
Manchester City and those comments from chief executive Garry Cook
about a place at Wembley already being assured.
Even if the successful bond issue has taken any immediate
worries away from club finances, the size of United's debt - now in
excess of £700million - and the doomsday scenario of their
training ground at Carrington, or even Old Trafford itself being
sold, as laid out in the prospectus for the bond, has mobilised an
anti-Glazer faction which clearly has plenty of sympathisers
judging by the number of people joining in songs that condemned the
Americans.
Although the reaction did actually generate a decent
atmosphere, it is hardly what Ferguson wants, which is why he
devoted such a large chunk of his programme notes yesterday to the
issue in a call for unity that went totally unheeded.
"Everyone is entitled to their opinion and to express
disapproval if they don't like what they see around them," he said.
"I am not slow to express disapproval myself if there is
something I don't agree with - even in the boardroom with the
directors.
"But once I walk out of that meeting I get on with my job as
manager of the team.
"Some of our fans are clearly unhappy with the financial
position but we mustn't allow the situation to become divisive.
"We must remain loyal to the cause of Manchester United."
