By Neil Ravenscroft
September 1 2004

Just occasionally, it's nice to stop worrying about Walsall Football Club and reflect on general football matters. The departure of "wunderkind" Wayne Rooney to Manchester United means one of those "wanderings". Watching Sky Sports News and listening to 5 Live and Talk Sport yesterday (sad, ain't I?), the reaction to Rooney's move to Manchester United just got me thinking about fans' attitudes to players when they leave a club.

Sky Sports, in particular, had some representative of an independent Everton Supporter's organisation, who spent the entire interview speaking directly to "Wayne" and saying things like how disappointed he was, despite the fact he’d "spoken to you, Wayne" and "spoken to your parents and family, Wayne" and "been round your house, Wayne". Personally, if I were Rooney, I'd be glad I'd left to get away from him! It certainly makes you realise that Steve from the ISSA is relatively sane! (Sorry, Steve). There were plenty of others too who were almost in tears and complaining about him having let the club down, after they had thought he was "Everton through and through".

It isn't that long, of course, that we heard similar sentiments from Leeds United fans about the departure of Alan Smith. I do wonder whether the strength of feeling in both his and Rooney's case may be the illogical hatred some people seem to have for Manchester United, but in the main, this attitude is something I just fail to understand, especially when the club is receiving a fair price for the player, which is certainly the case with Rooney. The other obvious example in recent years has to be Sol Campbell. With Campbell, however, it was a little more understandable, in that he not only went to Spurs' chief rivals, but also went on a Bosman when he could have left earlier and the club would have received a decent fee.

What I always fail to understand is the strange attitude supporters seem to have that players are playing for their club because they want to. I've got news for them, players are professionals and will go to the club that will pay them the most and give them the best chance of furthering their career. Does anyone really think that Wayne Rooney should even consider that staying at a struggling Everton might be remotely preferable to moving to Manchester United, where he'll get paid a lot more money, have a chance of winning things, play in the Champion's League with a far better quality of player and enhance his International prospects? Of course not.

I our own case, I have never booed Martin Butler on his returns to Bescot and cannot understand the attitude of those that do. He was almost driven out of the club by a small proportion of the crowd who were continually on his back, and went on to have a decent career at a reasonable level in the game. What's wrong with that? Did anyone truly expect Junior to turn down Derby's offer of twice as much money, or Darren Byfield turn down Gillingham and Championship football for a season with us in Division One? Hardly likely really, is it?

There may have been some sort of golden age of football when players turned out for their local clubs for the love of the game, but, personally, I doubt it. If there ever was, it went completely out of the window in the sixties when George Eastham and Jimmy Hill broke the maximum wage, it's just about time fans got round to realising it.