Bickering Baggies in warning to Rooney

Eat my goal
By Chris Kirwan
November 27 2002

Fed up with having a go at their team-mates it now seems that West Brom are intent on criticising the opposition. With Wayne Rooney the target.

Fresh from the news that Lee Hughes was the subject of a changing room bust-up at Goodison, WBA defender Darren ‘Big Dave’ Moore has warned Rooney that he should “wipe out the arrogant side of his game” or “he'll learn the hard way”. After Saturday’s performance at Goodison you’d think that WBA would be more intent on solving their own problems that trying their hand at David Moyes’ job.

The fallout from their loss to the Blues has been astonishing. Firstly their boss Gary Megson claimed that there had been no great gulf in class between WBA and the Blues. While Everton undoubtedly do not possess the quality that many sides in the Premiership have, the likes of Radzinski, Yobo, Gravesen, and even Li Tie, are far greater talents than the likes of Johnson, Gregan, McInnes and Wallwork. At the end of the day it is tough for WBA to compete when sides match their famed work ethic.

The second revelation came with the news that Lee Hughes was the target of some abuse from teammates about his lack of desire for the relegation battle. This came as a shock mainly because it was Hughes’ introduction on Saturday that finally gave WBA any impetus at all. All doesn’t seem well at the Hawthorns, and the solid unit that we were all led to believe would fight until the end of the season shows signs of cracking, and if WBA do allow their team spirit to diminish they have very little in the way of genuine class to fall back on.

The comments by Darren Moore have probably been taken out of context, and I doubt that a man of Moore’s size would bother picking a fight with a 17 year-old! He probably has genuine concern that a great talent like Rooney should let his ability go to his head, but I sure that Moyes would assure Moore that there is no chance of that happening. But the “arrogance” that we saw on Saturday is part of Rooney’s game that makes him so good, while critics say that Smith should lose his aggressive attitude neither should Rooney lose the “arrogance” that makes him try the impossible. And if somebody does want to teach Rooney a lesson “the hard way” then they themselves will have to be good to get anywhere near him.