Man U fans want Wayne Rooney out

Football News – A survey by the Red Issue Sanctuary made fans’ advice for Jose Mourinho clear

Drop him or persevere? That was the simple question posed to fans on a popular Manchester United fanzine about their under-fire captain Wayne Rooney.

And the response was as emphatic and uncompromising as could be with 99.08 of those who responded wanting the England skipper out of the line-up.

The Manchester Evening News reports the survey from the private RedIssue Sanctuary made fans’ advice for Jose Mourinho clear.

In a poll titled: “How do you solve a problem like Wayne Rooney?” a measly 0.92 per cent suggested Mourinho perseveres with the United captain, who performed wretchedly once again in the defeat at Watford.

MEN Sport was told there are “too many swear words to count” on the caustic fanzine Sanctuary.

Mourinho insisted in July he would not use Rooney as a midfielder yet started the 30-year-old in a three-man midfield with Paul Pogba and Marouane Fellaini.

Rooney, however, was woeful in a deeper role and Mourinho still accommodated his skipper in the second-half by switching to 4-2-3-1.

Mourinho stressed last month he had no problem dropping Rooney.

“I can take him out,” he said after United beat Hull. “It’s no problem for me to take him out, no problem for him to be out.

“But I was just reading the game and feeling that playing with the two strikers, Marcus and Zlatan, I needed Mkhitaryan and Rooney just inside because the full-backs were the ones playing really wide on the touchline.

“He was like the team. The first half he was okay but the team was a little bit slow in the transitions.”

A United fan compiled a package of Rooney’s lowlights against Watford, which ended with the message: ‘Take your weave and leave. YSB (You Scouse B******).’

Last year, a Red Issue Sanctuary scribe penned a song to Shakin’ Stevens’ ‘This Old House’, titled, ‘This Old Scouse’, which charted Rooney’s demise.

Red Issue was possibly the most influential of the three United fanzines before it ceased publishing in January last year because it ‘cannot stand the stench’ of football any longer.

The fanzine was responsible for such coups as the ‘Manchester is red’ banner being unfurled in the Kippax Stand before the last derby at Maine Road in 2002 and the ‘MUFC 19 times’ bedsheet which was on display at Anfield in 2011.

Red Issue was established in February 1989 and ran for 295 issues, with its regular ‘Word on the Street’ column rivalling national newspapers for transfer scoops. Other regulars included ‘G Stand grumbler’ Mr. Spleen and Life of Smiley.

Category: Football