Wayne Rooney To Sign For Arsenal? What will happen?

In recent weeks Arsené Wenger has openly admired the skills of Wayne Rooney and has stated that any team would be lucky to have a player such as him in their squad. There’s no doubt that this statement rings true when taking into account what Rooney brings to the team during 90 minutes, he’s one of the best and most consistent performers in the league. However, if Arsenal were to sign Rooney, what affect would this have to the squad as a whole? Would it prove to be a morale boost or would it cause friction and envy within the ranks? 

Let’s look at what positives Rooney would bring to Arsenal. Firstly, and without question, he would add the “world class” striker to our ranks that most fans believe is much needed. He contributed on average a goal/assist every 91 minutes he played last season. Compare that to the best striker in the league last season, one Robin Van Persie, who contributed a goal/assist every 82 minutes then it becomes quite clear that Rooney is 100% a world class striker. In addition to these stats he would also without question add some passion and fight to the team, both of which have been lacking in recent years if you believe what the pundits say. That passion and commitment could also “rub off” onto other members of the squad and help bring back the passionate unit that Arsenal had during their unbeaten season. Lastly, and some may argue most importantly, he would signal a statement of intent from Arsenal FC. After spending almost the last decade rebuilding every season due to some of our best players being sold, we will finally flex our new found financial muscles and sign one of our main rival’s top stars. This will surely boost morale both with Arsenal fans and within the dressing room, and players who were questioning the direction of Arsenal FC will have had those questions answered. Based on this evidence one may question how anyone could possibly argue against signing Rooney, but of course there’s always more than one side to the argument.

So what could possibly be negative about Arsenal signing Wayne Rooney? More importantly, do these negatives outweigh the positives. The first negative that springs to mind, and probably the most obvious one, is his outrageous wage demands (I use the word outrageous when based on the Arsenal wage structure). He would demand around £250,000 per week to play in Arsenal colours. Now if you compare this to our current highest paid player, Theo Walcott, who’s on £100,000, it means Rooney would be earning at least 2½ times more than every other player in the dressing room. Now it’s understandable that he would be the top earner due to his reputation and ability, but would the dressing room really believe he’s worth at least £150,000 a week more than everyone else in there? On top of this, any future signings will have to be comparable to our top earner, for instance, if we were to sign Fellaini right now, you can bet he’d probably want to be amongst the top earners at the club so would demand something in the region of £100,000. If however we’d already signed Rooney you can be sure Fellaini wouldn’t be happy being offered less than half of what Rooney is on, so therefore we’d have to folk out even more in the long term to sign him. Then, once again, the dressing room would surely call into question how much they’re being paid in comparison, which would either cause rifts and discontent, or would mean we have to improve the contracts of each player within the squad which would add millions to the yearly wage budget.
The second issue that may be called into question is Rooney’s off the pitch attitude and ultimately his ability to fit into the squad in terms of personality. Most of the Arsenal squad seem to have a quiet humbleness about them and very rarely can any of them be seen gallivanting around London in the early hours. Rooney on the other hand has an attitude/ego that seems to suit the Chelsea dressing room more than the Arsenal one, and on top of this there’s the media circus that follows him around which could possibly unsettle some of the current squad. So, would a “big time Charlie” such as Rooney disrupt the balance and overall general feeling within the squad?

Personally the jury’s out for me. I believe Giroud will get another season to come good so I think these Rooney rumours are nothing more than column fillers, but if I’m wrong and Rooney does come, even though some fans will “know” 100% that he’ll do the business and fill the gap that RVP left, I think it’s virtual impossible to predict the type of impact he will have.