Rooney To Hit The Heights

Wayne Rooney will have an awesome season, according to Sir Alex Ferguson.

At the end of season summaries, statistics led me wonder whether Rooney had set his standards too high even for himself? Most United fans, including myself, viewed his last season as a disappointment - yet he scored 23 goals, his best total yet and done this as not an out-and-out goalscorer and often deployed on the left.

Still, it seems Sir Alex shares our view that Rooney has more to come and expects him to rock next season.

'Wayne's incredible, a very strong character and he will be a big player next season, believe me,' he said.

'He'll have a great season because this is the first time since he joined the club that he will have had a proper pre-season with us.'

'The likes of Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo are young lads who could play all day long, but the summer break will benefit everyone because they have been away for a long time.

'Wayne is the first to the training ground every morning. It's unbelievable, but he just loves football and training.'

Rooney's certainly been impressive during the Asia tour, the last game of which is due to start in an hour but don't kid ourselves: all our opponents have been way below Premiership quality so should not draw conclusions hastily.

Of course, I'm inclined to believe Sir Alex - after all, last summmer he had been sure Ronaldo was going to light up the stage and it duly happened.

And there's another thing. I can't recall what disrupted Rooney's preparations in 2005... tried to look it up but hard to find anything when you don't know what you're looking for. It hardly matters, I'm just curious and annoyed that I do not remember.

Anyway, I'm sure that a rest and some good preparation will do wonders, really and Rooney will once again show the talent we love him for. Looking forward to it very much.