Wayne's world

Wayne Rooney was to be "branded" as the "antithesis" of David Beckham by his agent when he started his sport career, Manchester Mercantile Court was told.

Rooney, then aged 17, was given "brand values" by his agent, Paul Stretford, and sports management firm Proactive to play up his working class credentials.

... Ian Mill QC, reading from internal Proactive documents, said the brand strategy for "Team Rooney" was: "Wayne is a street fighter, a product of the terraces, the antithesis of DB (David Beckham). He's earthy, real, not manufactured, what you see is what you get."

In other words, all those stories about him being thick, violent, greedy and randy enough to fuck a granny were part of the masterplan – not that this means they were entirely without substance.

Hey, I’m a product of the terraces: just to the left of pillar B on the Boothen End of the old Victoria ground, pictured here in all its gritty glory. That explains my generally street fighting, earthy and unmanufactured geopolitical analysis. Maybe I should get an agent.

I still hold that the Rooneys are, in fact, the claymation Beckhams.

Comments

[Igor Belanov]

I think the game when I stood in the Boothen End was quite a frightening experience. I'm not sure whether it was because I got shoved down ten steps by celebrating fans every time Stoke scored, or that I was alarmed more by the bloke who shinned his way up one of the posts and led the singing of 'Delilah'. It was probably one of the last games at the Victoria Ground in the March of 1997 in front of a huge crowd of 8 and a half thousand.

[ejh]

I greatly amused a bunch of Spanish primary schoolkids the other day by informing them that Rooney was nicknamed "cara de tarta".

[jamie]

Hey, Igor: didn't get shoved very often then? The crowds were bigger in my boothen end days (as they are now). You used to get those great ripple surges that you only got when the ends were full and that you dont get any more when any ground likely to be full is all seater. In a way, it was a sensual experience: a huge tumult of sweating, hawking, spitting, swearing, smoking, horrible Stokie humanity. Happy days.