ONCE A BLUE...

BIT of a cop-out blog today I'm afraid. I've been snowed under with stuff for the Echo relaunch and unable to get some consistent blogging going. Don't worry though loyal readers (all four of you), I'll be back in business next week.
In the meantime here's a column I did in the paper today on He Who Must Not Be Mentioned.
Let's hope we get a result at Bolton tonight and sow the seeds of our season's revival.
Coyb.
Greg

HERE'S the rational argument; Wayne Rooney is a talented footballer who played for his hometown club before transferring to a richer club for a huge sum of money, which proved very helpful to his first employers.

His popularity with home-town supporters ensured the abrupt departure caused significant ill-feeling.
That was four years ago, both the player, and each club, have positively moved on and recriminations should have ceased long ago.
But as with the majority of footy fan feuds, trying to introduce rationale is pointless. The distorted passions and twisted logic of some supporters almost creates an alternative reality (just witness the repugnant barracking of Sol Campbell by Spurs fans recently).Yet to really understand the affection which Rooney was held by Everton fans, it helps if you were in Goodison Park on October 19, 2002.
Sixteen-year-old Rooney scored a wonder goal to give the blues a 2-1 win over then-champions Arsenal. It was a historic moment which shook that grand old stadium to its foundations.
Everton supporters had a reservoir of optimism for a future led by a bright young manager with his swaggering protege from Croxteth.
I'll never forget one overheated fan in the Gwladys Street roaring 'Get in there Baby Jesus' after another swashbuckling Rooney moment that December (and people accuse journalists of over-hype!)
But Rooney was idolised by Evertonians, (often cynical and not as prone to over-sentimentality as other fans) largely because he was one of us.
The 'Once a blue always a Blue' T-shirt crystallised the sentiment.
So, it's important to recall that affection when dissecting the subsequent fallout, highlighted on Saturday when Rooney reacted to chants at Goodison by kissing the Manchester United crest on his shirt.
It was a cringingly immature gesture, triggered by a playground mentality which encourages giving as good as you get ahead of nobler principles like rising above.
Outsiders seem baffled by how much Evertonians currently loathe Rooney. Perhaps they think us bitter and short-sighted.
But they are unable to appreciate the dynamics of a feud which Rooney keeps fuelling.
The 23-year-old's own mindset has been warped by a situation, partly of his own creation, which sees him overwhelmingly disliked in his home city.
And instead of conciliatory words which could heal old wounds, he offers only defamatory chapters in his autobiography, a blind-spot in interviews over the part Everton played in his career and moments like that on Saturday.
Wayne Rooney could make life easier for himself in future visits to Goodison, or his own city, by his own attitude and conduct. Show humility, a reluctance to celebrate goals against Everton, even just basic respect...
Surely this advice has been offered by his family, many of whom still live and work in the city.
It is a shame he seems incapable of stepping out of the bubble he lives and listening.

(This column appared in the Liverpool Echo on Wednesday, October 29, 2008).

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