The Biggest Disappointment award
Nominees: Wayne Rooney’s ambition and Antonio Valencia broken bones
Valencia isn’t the cheating kind so when he went down you knew something was up. It was the reaction of the players around him, both Rangers and United, that confirmed something must be broken. After being one of our best players of the season before, gelling with the first team at great speed, it was so disappointing to learn that just a month in to the season that he was going to be missing for half of it. Come back soon, Tony!
You could hardly believe your ears when listening to Sir Alex Ferguson say that Wayne Rooney had no interest in signing a new contract because he wanted to leave the club. Just months before he was kissing his badge and talking of his desire to follow in Ryan Giggs’ footsteps and the next he was on the telly claiming that David Gill hadn’t given him the reassurances he wanted about the ambition of the club. Whilst obviously it was massively disappointing to learn our best player wanted to leave, it ran so much deeper than that. He’d conned us in to thinking that he cared about the club, that he loved being a United player and that he had no intention of going anywhere else. He had also lied about his injury to give off the impression there had been a clash of personalities behind the scenes with Sir Alex, so he had another excuse. ‘Fergie falls out with another top player’ the journos would right and the manager would be blamed. I also find it hard to believe Gill, for all his floors, replied to Rooney’s question by saying, “Oh, you want us to buy some star players otherwise you’re going to leave? Well, it looks like you have to leave, we can’t assure you about our ambition, as we definitely won’t be buying any star players.” The hurt and the betrayal, feeling so foolish and naive, is one of the biggest disappointments so many of us have ever endured as a United fan.
Winner: Wayne Rooney
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