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22nd Jan 2017

Alan Shearer said Rooney would happily play for £50 and MOTD viewers swiftly reminded him of one inconvenient fact

There was just one minor problem with this.

Mike Wright

After Wayne Rooney became Manchester United’s top goal scorer ever yesterday, the punditocracy erupted into an orgy of praise and adulation.

Which is to be expected, as it’s an incredible feat, no matter how choppy the United skipper’s form has been of late.

The manner in which he broke it, whipping a free kick in from a tight angle and reminding everyone of the brilliance of which he was once routinely capable, only served to intensify the Rooney love-in.

But there’s always one who takes it a step too far, isn’t there?

Step forward Alan Shearer.

The Newcastle legend seemed to be a bit wound-up when, Ruud Gullit, had the temerity to suggest that Rooney was not seen as one of the true greats on the continent as he’d never really done it at an international tournament.

Cue slight overreaction from Shearer as he doubled down on the Rooney love saying:

“People talk about the finances in the game now-a-days, Wayne Rooney is a guy that would play for 50 quid a week”.

Which is a theory that makes perfect sense. If you airbrush the most notorious period of Rooney’s career out of history.

As many Match of the Day viewers were very quick to point out on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/KieranFitchett_/status/822946737656655873

https://twitter.com/stonertim/status/822946837845970944

https://twitter.com/Firtinho_/status/822946994842992641

But this one seemed to sum up the general reaction best.