How Rooney’s romantic return turned sour in one season

LONDON: On returning to his boyhood club last year, Wayne Rooney revealed he was such a die-hard fan that he had worn Everton pyjamas each night during his 13 years away.

It was a nice line which drew much laughter as the football world bought into his journey back to the club where it had all begun.

But 12 months on he may face more embarrassing questions about his nightwear if his decision to agree a “deal in principle” with DC United leads to a move to the MLS.

The sentiment that followed Rooney’s return to Goodison Park from Manchester United, where his career burgeoned, never outlasted Sam Allardyce’s arrival last November.

Straightaway, the no-nonsense manager encountered the same problem he had grappled with in his short time in charge of England: if Rooney was no longer either the warrior who led United so fearlessly or the outrageously gifted tyro who joined them from Everton, what exactly was he?

In the quest to find out, Rooney was shuffled round the team, playing striker, support, attacking and deep-lying midfielder or coming in off the left and right.

Rooney’s versatility allowed him to adapt each time but frustration was building.

Everything came to a head last month when he was substituted little more than halfway through successive games against Manchester City and Liverpool.

Rooney’s angry response was littered with expletives that were picked up on television.

If he could not be trusted to make the difference when it really counted, he seemed to say, when would he be?

Although Rooney remains Everton’s leading goal-getter this season with 11, he last scored in December.

Allardyce muttered darkly about not being able to play him alongside Gylfi Sigurdsson, Everton’s other marquee summer signing, while at the same time complaining that Rooney did not get into the box enough.

“We talk to the player about that situation, whoever it might be, and say levels have to be lifted. And when that continues to happen, no matter who it is, whether it’s Wayne, Phil Jagielka, Tom Davies or whoever, you get left out of the team,” said Allardyce.

While the manager has laced his criticism with some praise, even suggesting earlier this week that it would take “a massive offer” to tempt Everton to sell, it was hard to escape the conclusion that he felt the speed of games was passing the player by.

Yet Rooney is only 32, six months younger than Ronaldo, who has a Champions League final and World Cup coming up, and only one year older than Teddy Sheringham when he joined United for what proved a golden period in his career.