Wayne Rooney's Greedy Attitude Gets Great Results

THIS week, Wayne Rooney hasn’t been out of the headlines, and this time it has regarded his next football career move.  Rooney’s greedy demand of wanting to earn £200,000 a week came to fruition yesterday, when he signed a new five-year contract to stay at Manchester United against all the odds.  Sadly, this can only been seen as a victory by blackmail over pure commonsense.

The trouble started back in August, when Rooney and his agent met chief executive David Gill to discuss terms over a new contract.  Rooney’s previous deal expired in 2012 and he wanted guarantees over United’s strength in the transfer market, especially when you consider the wealth that their neighbours Manchester City have at their disposal.  Gill couldn’t guarantee these promises, and he had every right to do so, as the club is over £700million in debt.  Consequently, Rooney decided to play hardball and it is sad to have seen United give in to his over-the-top demands. 

The feverish newspaper speculation about his future began last weekend, when Rooney was left on the bench for last Saturday’s disappointing 2-2 draw with West Brom at Old Trafford.  Reports of conflict over an ankle injury were alleged by the papers, between Rooney and Sir Alex Ferguson.  On Tuesday, at the standard UEFA Champions League press conference, Ferguson looked like a broken man, when he told the media of Rooney’s decision to leave the club.  Rooney later stated that it was because ‘Manchester United couldn’t meet his ambitions!’  For someone who may have won three Premiership trophies and the Champions League during his six-year tenure at the Theatre of Dreams, this was a staggering remark.  Even for people who don’t know football, Manchester United is the biggest brand in football.  There was no doubt that this was all about money, rather than ambition to play in another country.

Despite interest from Manchester City and Real Madrid, showdown talks were held yesterday and Rooney put pen to paper on a new deal.  With lucrative sponsorship deals from EA Sports and Nike, he could be earning upto £250,000 a week!  That is more money than I will probably see in a lifetime and on a week, when millions have been affected by the spending cuts and when clubs like Portsmouth face going out of business, you can’t help but feel that this he has been no more than a selfish monster.

Ferguson has stood up to many players before and the likes of Jaap Stam, Ruud van Nistlerooy, Paul Ince, Roy Keane and David Beckham have all lost in battles against the governor of football.  So how Rooney won in this game is staggering.  Maybe Sir Alex’s age is starting to affect his wisdom and decision making, though who I am to question someone who has won everything in the game during his twenty-five years at Manchester United.

Does Rooney deserve the money?  The answer is a simple no.  Granted, he is a world-class player and class is permanent, but his form at the moment is diabolical.  His performance at the World Cup for England was dismal, and his form for United this season has made him look like an ageing figure.  Fortunately, with Dimitar Berbatov, Javier Hernandez, Michael Owen and Federico Macheda on their books, the Red Devils have plenty of striking options to step up to the plate when Rooney falters.  Let’s not forget his private life has been intruded into, which is bound to affect anyone.  However, that is his own fault, and he should have thought about it when he starting sleeping with Spanish girls.

I hope that Manchester United fans will take their time to forgive their No.9.  Rooney’s actions this week have made him out to be a spoilt, childish brat.  He has let down his army of supporters, his team-mates and the manager big time.  When people like Wayne Rooney become all arrogant that £100,000 a week is not enough, then you realise how much of a financial mess the game of football is. . .

Now, can we please return to more serious issues in the news next week?  Thank you very much!  

F1 2010 (The Computer Game Review)

BY JASON WRIGHT

Although the support of Formula 1 has grown in recent times, for several years now, its place in the gaming market has been very much in the doldrums.  The axing of EA Sports’ take on the series in 2003 meant the titles became PlayStation exclusive as they were made by Sony.   Though these games still were massive bestsellers, Sony hardly developed and improved the format and with the titles became boring and repetitive, finally having its contract terminated in 2007.

It wasn’t until March 2008 when the FOM decided to award a new contract.  Codemasters was given the rights to restore F1 to its former glory in the games world.  The decision was soon taken to only release a 2009 version of the game on the PSP and Nintendo Wii, intending to put all its effort into 2010 for it to really attract the likes of Xbox 360, PS3 and PC, the former of which has never had an F1 game until now.

Utilising their self-titled ‘EGO’ games engine, which has made the Race Driver and Colin McRae DIRT titles such a success, the task was simple but as always, complicated.  To not only give the player the experience of racing in F1 but to live the life off the track as well.

As expected, the game is mainly built around the career mode.  Unlike in the Sony versions, the player jumps straight into the championship, without having to go through the daunting task of earning a super license, compete in a shoot-out for a race seat or take part in pre-season testing.  Starting with one of the three new teams on the grid for this season, Hispania Racing F1 Team, Virgin Racing or Lotus Racing, it’s the player’s ultimate task to be successful, rise through the ranks to the point that they are eventually racing for a championship challenger like McLaren-Mercedes, Ferrari or Red Bull Racing.  The player has the choice of stopping after their third of fifth season in the sport but after having done seven seasons (in this case, the year 2016), that’s it, they will have to retire.

It is what’s off the grid that adds excitement to the game.  Never before has the player been able to talk to media, which varies from whatever language the game is in, (the English version allows you to speak to BBC Radio 5 Live’s David Croft and Holly Samos.)  These interviews can seem innocent but players have to watch out, just the small word of criticism spoken can land the player in hot water with their team.  Performances in races also matter, out-race your more experienced team-mate and you can get first call in technical upgrades on the car.  You also get an agent, named Gabriella, who sounds Italian, who will handle contract negotiations and transfers to a new team.

Sony’s ultimate letdown in recent years was its tedious AI (Artificial Intelligence) system which usually had the cars racing around in a straight line with no action, changes in order only happened in pit-stops.  Codemasters has been extremely careful not to repeat this mistake and bases each circuit and weather condition on deciding whose best in those particular environments.  Good examples are that Felipe Massa may be the one to beat in Turkey as he’s won three times in the last five years there and Lewis Hamilton could be the one to watch out for in wet weather because of his strong drives in these conditions in real life.  It actually also has cars crashing into one another at any time.  Players have to also watch out for hazards such as bits of bodywork on the track or a stranded car on the racing line.  This does though have a downside that this game does not have any mechanical failures or a Safety Car.  Codemasters has had the decency to admit this before its release and has already confirmed it will work to bring back mechanical retirements for the 2011 game, although whether the safety car will also return remains to be seen.

Advanced technology in games has allowed the opportunity to provide the best wet weather racing yet.  Skill and nerve is what’s required now, just like in real life, in order to master the tricky conditions.  The dynamic weather setting will allow to automatically selecting the most common conditions for each circuit.  Malaysia, Belgium and Japan are perhaps prime examples of where it is most likely to rain.

Other missing features include no race commentary, instead receiving constant feedback from your race engineer via team radio.  Some players though might consider this as a good thing as in-race commentary could distract their progress in trying to listen to it.  After all, who wants to listen to the tedious Jonathan Legard!  It is also not possible to watch live footage of either practice or qualifying when in the garage, instead relying on just the live timing page.  Also, there is no World Championship mode this year though the grand prix weekend mode allows up to all 19 races on the F1 calendar to be contested at any one time, auto saving in between, so players can race the full championship calendar, or for the first time ever, ability to mix up the order of the races (e.g. you could possibly want to go to Singapore first and have Britain as the season finale).

In conclusion, the gamble that Codemasters in rushing through 2009 and fully committing to 2010 has well and truly paid off.  As long as they make significant improvements year after year, this completely heralds a new dawn for F1 games.