Opinion: Why Rooney is the key to Manchester Utd's success

I'ts All About Roo
There has been so much to admire about Manchester United's football this season but if there was an award for team player, it should go to Wayne Rooney.

If one man has sacrificed himself for the cause this season, it's Rooney. Often playing as a lone striker, he's worked himself into the ground and sacrificed the chance to use the more creative aspects of his game.

If United buy a front line striker this summer - and they're already being linked with Michael Owen and Seville's Luis Fabiano - Rooney should be free to play in a more withdrawn role next season.

Then we'll see a different side to him. In fact, my first prediction for next season is that Rooney will be the Footballer of the Year.

Reading's pain is a joy to others
My life story, as written by Reading fans, has been available on Wikipedia for a year or so now.

Obviously, I couldn't wish for a more impartial bunch of biographers and their wit and balance has often been a source of comfort to me when I have turned to the page for reassurance.

A Radio Berkshire exchange with an over-excited, overwrought muppet of a presenter called Tim Dellor has achieved a prominence that I never quite accorded it myself but it is a wonderful memory, nonetheless.

And my gentle criticisms of that shy, retiring, publicity-hating chairman John Madejski, have been so exhaustively reproduced that I often look them up to remind myself of how uplifting it was to chronicle the good works of the most self-effacing man on the planet.

Given Reading's newly reduced circumstances, therefore, I was saddened and appalled to learn last week that their efforts on my behalf had been defiled and defaced by the crude, lewd and somewhat crass observations of a group of liberal intellectuals purporting to be fans of that renowned bastion of good governance in football, West Ham.

I know, of course, that the supporters of a team that fought so bravely to halt Manchester United's march on the title 10 days ago, holding out with unbelievable determination for three minutes before they allowed United to score, would never stoop so low as to vandalise a page that has brought me so much joy.

But the cruel and savage mockery these philistines aimed atmy recent Berks Journalist of the Year award caused me, my family and fans of Reading Football Club everywhere great distress.

I will be eternally grateful to the technological whizzkids at Wikipedia - who have proved their kindness and generosity for some time now by crediting me with penning Frank Lampard's autobiography even though I didn't write a word of it - for removing the filth so quickly and restoring Reading's rightful place in my journey at such a painful point in their history.

From this moment on, I would like to make it known I wish my Wikipedia page to be renamed The Madejski Page.

It only seems right.

Why Leeds deserver a break
I mean nothing against Carlisle United, Doncaster or Southend, but I hope Leeds United and their manager Gary McAllister (right) get a day at Wembley and promotion to the Championship in the next 10 days. No set of fans deserve the heartache they have suffered in the last few years. They've tottered from one catastrophe to another. It's about time they caught a break.

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