I’ve always liked reading and writing, it’s been a passion of mine since I was a child. My parents always used to shout at me for trying to get in some extra reading at night when the lights were out and it’s because of this my eyesight is TERRIBLE now.
From an early age the classics of Dickens and Shakespeare were forced upon me by y dad so when we started looking at that sort of thing in secondary (and later college) I was a step ahead and it is with this knowledge that I have drawn up the more than obvious comparisons with a Shakespearean classic.
Yesterday as I watched Sir Alex’s press conference to confirm what we had all hoped to be fallacy, for the first time in memory Sir Alex looked his age. He didn’t seem the boisterous defiant man we all know him to be. Instead he seemed weary, mournful and resigned to defeat.
Sir Alex is a man usual cast as the villain, there is always something he has done wrong in any situation and not to say he is an angel but sometimes it can be an unfair tag. Initially when the story first broke he was again set to play that role as we were told Rooney had felt Sir Alex had not offered him the support he felt he had needed but in a masterful display Sir Alex subverted this.
When I read King Lear, initially he seemed harsh but as the play wore on we developed more and more sympathy for him as he was done wrong by his wicked children whose actions took away his regal confidence and left him babbling and broken mess. Although Sir Alex was nowhere near as bad as Lear in his broken down state I can’t be the only person who can draw similarities between the two stories.
There are some trains of thought that state that Lear was feigning his madness and the whole thing was an act and if you believe what is being stated by some papers and journalists it appears that Sir Alex has followed suit. Sir Alex is a tough man, he has seen and done it all in the game. Managed mouthy upstarts to humble professionals and in Wayne Rooney he has been presented a different challenge. I admit this maybe a war Sir Alex may lose as it is likely that Rooney will leave but in terms of the personal battle he will save face if he continues to play the situation the way he did yesterday.
As of this present moment Sir Alex has gone from being the fiery un-malleable boss to the caring understanding parent who only wants to see the best for his ward. Don’t get me wrong I don’t for one second doubt that is the case, it is likely that he would prefer to have Wayne than not, who wouldn’t? But he has ensured that if Wayne does leave he won’t be the bad guy in the episode.
The ball is now in Rooney’s court whatever he says next will have a massive bearing on the whole episode but currently it looks like he has had his head turned and money is his motivation, the fact he is said to be in negotiations with a tabloid to sell his story makes it look even worse, so it will take a massive revelation for him to reverse the damage that has been done to his reputation.
Does he have the guile to work the situation the way Sir Alex did? I doubt it
