Everyone could be forgiven for thinking that Wayne Rooney’s return to English football would be fairly low-key.
He’s an ageing player with his best days behind him, and it was also lauded as a “player/coach” deal so it wasn’t clear how much he would actually play.
Despite that, if you’ve seen any of the Sky Sports coverage in recent weeks, you would think that some kind of messiah had been brought back.
READ MORE: Video: Rooney bags brilliant assist on his Derby debut after free-kick
Derby County are no longer a thing, it’s “Wayne Rooney’s Derby County” and any attempt to shoehorn him into the conversation must be taken. Even the Soccer Saturday coverage of Duane Holmes’ late equaliser at the weekend featured extensive descriptions of Rooney’s whereabouts in the move.
This isn’t his fault, but it must be pretty wearing for the Derby fans already. There was some controversy when he signed, with Derby’s sponsor 32Red reportedly involved and Rooney wearing the number 32 on his shirt, but it seems no action will be taken.
A report from I News confirmed that the FA were satisfied with everything, even though he earns £90k per week and that sponsorship came suspiciously close to a new sponsorship deal with the betting firm.
We’ve seen it countless times that an FA will step in if a full back from a lower league team has even walked past a bookies at some point, but anything that involves serious money is usually swept under the carpet.