Читать онлайн «Wayne Rooney: My Decade in the Premier League»

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

FOREWORD BY SIR ALEX FERGUSON

INTRODUCTION

1 DESIRE

2 HOME

3 CARRINGTON

4 PAYBACK

5 GRAFT

6 PRESSURE

7 CHANGE

8 CHAMPIONS

9 EUROPE

10 SACRIFICE

11 MOSCOW

12 DEBUT

13 MANCHESTER

14 RIVALS

15 FACT!

16 NIGHTMARE

17 PASSION

18 PAIN

19 CONTROVERSY

20 FAMILY

21 OFFICE

22 MARGINS

EPILOGUE

PLATE SECTION

ABOUT WAYNE ROONEY

ABOUT MATT ALLEN

COPYRIGHT

ABOUT THE PUBLISHER

There are so many people who have helped and worked alongside me to make my Premier League dream become a reality. First and foremost my parents and family have played a massive role in getting me where I am today.

All the coaches and managers I have worked with since being a young lad, my agent Paul Stretford and the people who work alongside him, and all my team mates and friends in and out of the game: thanks for being there. But through working on this book and reflecting on the highs and lows of the last 10 years there are two people who merit specific mention.

To my wife Coleen, thanks for being there through the rough and the smooth; you will never know how much your love and support means to me. To my son Kai, you’re my first thought in the morning and you give me my last smile at the end of the day. I love you both so much, you’re my inspiration and my motivation every single day.

Thanks for everything.

Love,

Wayne (and Daddy) xxx

There were plenty of eyebrows raised when I persuaded Manchester United’s board of directors to sanction a multimillion pound move to try to prise away Wayne Rooney from Everton.

The lad was still only eighteen, but he had already shown in the two years he’d been in Everton’s first team that he was a rare talent.

The Everton backroom staff had done a marvellous job nurturing the youngster through their academy to the day he made his debut for the first team when still some weeks short of his seventeenth birthday.

Long before he made his bow for the senior side everybody in the game was well aware that Everton had unearthed a little gem, and it didn’t take him long to announce his arrival on the big stage.

Everton were Wayne’s club as a schoolboy, so we can only imagine how he felt to pull on that famous royal blue shirt and run out to the roar of the Goodison Park crowd.

It wasn’t a surprise that he took to first team football with the minimum of fuss. Wayne Rooney was born to play football and it was plain to see from the outset that his future as a major figure in the game was assured.

We were under no illusions that it would take anything other than a very, very large cheque if we were to tempt Everton into agreeing to let Wayne make the short move up the M62.

I suppose everyone has their price and eventually we managed to negotiate a deal with Everton to secure the services of the finest young player of his generation.