Lad you can't just name half a dozen good players we've had in the twelve years since Rooney left and say it was cracking business.
Of those you've listed only Arteta was bought with Rooney money. Cahill had already signed when Rooney left and the rest came years later.
The players we got with Rooney funds were Arteta, James Beattie, Simon Davies, Phil Neville, Nuno Valente, and Andy Van Der Meyde. Arteta was great and Nuno serviceable but the dough was almost completely wasted.
Its not about the money directly being used to buy players X,Y,Z. Its about the way we conducted business, of course we must take into consideration that the payments were staggered over three years I believe.
My point was that when we sold Rooney for £25-£30m we bought small again and sold big, see Lescott as the next example after Rooney.
We bought in players to fit into a team, Rooney was one man, talented as he was he couldn't do everything almost single handed.
I think if we take away the blue tinted specs, how many of us done stupid things at the age of 18 when egged on by our friends and such ?
I also use the term 'stupid thing' loosely, his profile, his trophy cabinet and his sponsorship bank balance state he made a smart move.
As for the badge kissing thing, it was heat of the moment to get back at those who abused him over the years, lets be honest I would be prone to say/do something stupid in order to bite back at the mob who made things personal.
Wayne Rooney was in danger of becoming bigger than the club at that time. How many of us now think of Messi when Barcelona was mentioned, how many think of Ronaldo when Madrid are mentioned or Totti at Roma ? Sometimes a clubs identity gets lost within one players ego/image, I would hate for one club to be based on one player, its a team game both on and off the pitch, Rooney was Everton's only asset and we cashed in on it to better the team. Just my opinion for what little its worth.
