Rooney's No Gary Bennett

Let’s be honest; international football and what Wrexham get up to are virtually different sports. However, there are still parallels between us and the World Cup which England in particular can learn from. Specifically, Wayne Rooney’s ability to turn things round seems linked to whether he’s got a bit of Gary Bennett in him.

There’s certainly plenty of anger in Rooney right now, but that’s nothing new. However, without the Machiavellian Alex Ferguson to direct it, it seems the striker has lost the ability to use his fury to spur him on. Diego Maradona talks of bronca, a sense of indignant fury, hatred even, which drives him, and clearly it can spill over unhealthily, as every journalist who has been shot or run over by EL Diego will testify! However, Ferguson has long cracked the trick of using such emotions to inspire a side; “No one likes us, we don’t care” has been converted by him from a Millwall fan’s epithet to a tactic and the resulting siege mentality has brilliantly driven Manchester United on.

Note how United will always celebrate in front of the opposing fans rather than their own if they can. Sure, it’s ugly, but it works. The chips on the shoulders of Rooney, Neville and the rest are converted into sheer will-to-win.

Capello doesn’t seem to operate like that though, and Rooney finds himself lacking a direction for his anger. He aims it instead at the fans, at his team mates, at anyone and everyone, it would appear, instead of channelling it into an energy which can drive him on. He’s no Gary Bennett.

Bennett didn’t need a manager to tutor him; his ability to get under the opposition’s skin and feed off their resulting ire was natural. A game at Crewe stands out for me; their fans, familiar over the years with Bennett’s provocative antics, gave him hell. And he scored two in a 3-0 win, lapping it all up. Rooney needs to learn the lesson and react by showing everyone what he can do.

Of course, Ferguson’s not there to remind him how to do it, so perhaps Rooney should get a copy of the excellent documentary ESPN screened last week on basketball player Reggie Miller’s vendetta with film director Spike Lee. In a play-off in New York in the mid-1990s, Miller’s Indiana Pacers are getting thrashed, but Lee’s constant, manic mockery of Miller on the sidelines drove the player to new heights. Miller scored basket after basket, turning to Lee after each one to ram his words down his throat, and led his team to an incredible victory.

Perhaps Rooney should see if he can get his hands on the DVD; after all, those poor, brave little soldiers are supposed to be struggling for ways to pass the time in their luxury six star spa, aren’t they?

Never A Sense of Closure at Wrexham

Is it my imagination, or do we sign back a disproportionate number of ex-players?

Andy Morrell is the latest one who looks like he might come back for another stint at The Racecourse. His exploits when we were promoted seven years ago have assured him a place in the club's history, but should he return he'll have to buck a trend if he's not to tarnish that reputation.

When you consider the high number of players who've come back for more, there seem to have been plenty more who didn't live up to expectations in their second spell with us. Gary Bennett, Chris Armstrong, Juan Ugarte, Mark Jones, Lee Roche, Scott Green and Mike Ingham spring immediately to mind.

Leaving the debit column behind, successes are harder to find. Mickey Thomas perhaps; Kevin Russell wasn't the same player up front but reinvented himself as an effective midfielder; and Lee Jones, hampered as he was by injuries in his three subsequent spells, had a decent enough strike rate.

There's an interesting pattern when you look at the players who've had a disappointing second spell with us. They tend to be goalscorers. Each of them went on to better things based on what they'd done for us, but having had a taste of life in the higher divisions, they came back down to us and failed to live up to expectations. And isn't that perfectly natural? Players don't drop back down the divisions unless they have to; strikers who can still score at their old rate wouldn't have to come back to us. Naturally, this means they fail to live up to fans' expectations, even if they didn't do that badly (look at Bennett's stats in his second spell, for example; while he didn't manage to hit his previous heights in a Wrexham shirt, a goal every three games was certainly not bad; it would have worked out at fifteen league goals if he'd been there for the whole season.)

And of course, that's what Morrell would have to watch out for if he returned. The beauty of Morrell was always his energy, and that down-to-earth willingness to put in a good shift will, one suspects, still be there. The encouraging fact that Bury offered him a new contract for this season supports that notion. However, fans will recall the remarkable tally of thirty-four goals he managed in his last season. and if they expect him to replicate that, their expectations would be unreasonable.

People forget that, until that phenomenal season, Morrell looked more like an eager foil for a goalscorer than a spearhead. He was the remarkable foil for Lee Jones when the latter hit five past Cambridge, and was expected to fulfil the same role for him and Lee Trundle the following year. That would be the logical role he would be cast in should he re-sign, doing the donkey work for Andy Mangan. If the deal is sealed, I hope everyone realises that from the off.

With two weeks left until...............

we start the Blue Square campaign the team and squad are coming together very nicely. Dean Saunders, true to his word, has not been rushed and signed just anyone. This week has seen Matty Wolfenden and Lamine Sakho agree to join the cause, whilst Tom Kearney had moved on to pastures new. The squad whilst being smaller than last year is packed with players who have shown considerable promise or have experience of playing at a higher level.

Swine flu (or a virus anyway) hit the players this week with four missing the match against Preston but the biggest health scare to hit the club was the saga of Marc's right foot. Williams limped off after only six minutes on Tuesday causing his manager major first half worry and some not inconsiderable concern in the commentary position as Mark and I reflected and agonised on another spell without our talisman. Fortunately it proved to be ill founded as the bone was not broken and with any luck the Welsh U21 striker will be available for the visit of Eastbourne.

So are any of our strikers capable of scoring 20+ goals and driving us towards the holy grail of promotion back to the Football League. Their track records say no but then so did Benno's and Andy Morrell's before they fired in the goals that earned us promotion in 92~93 and 02~03. Andy Mangan potentially could have repeated last seasons performance but he is now banned for betting activity so why can't Marc, Gareth, Obi, Simon or Matty score 20 goals? No reason at all in my view given the right service who is to say Marc Williams can't be the new Gary Bennett or Matty Wolfenden the new Andy Morrell. Besides which there are still two weeks to go and Deano hasn't let us down so far who knows what excitement and new signings they will bring.

Steve

Interesting....

A striker who divides opinion-is he lazy and argumentative or a goalscoring cult hero? Let's hope we've found a new Gary Bennett!