What might have been

Interesting revelations from young Master Rooney, who claims in his autobiography that he came closer to joining Newcastle than we had all imagined.

Apparently a blazing row with David Moyes - whom Rooney came to find "overbearing" (probably not his word - too many syllables) - prompted him to declare that he never wanted to play for him again.

"If no-one else had come in I would have gone to Newcastle", he says. "But I knew that United was the club I wanted to join". If it hadn't been for that pesky Ferguson... (Surely it wouldn't have taken much to confuse Rooney to our advantage given that we too are United?)

In August 2004, we had just sold star defender Jonathan Woodgate to Real Madrid, and, flush with cash, Fat Fred was keen to appease the disgruntled fans. Cue the bid for Rooney, which at the time was seen as desperate and laughable (by me too - see the inaugural post on Black & White & Read All Over), only serving to provoke Man Utd into lodging a far more attractive bid of their own.

So it's interesting to know that we really weren't that far off landing the jug-eared wonder (even if he would have been signing to escape Moyes rather than out of a desire to play at St James'). Interesting - and saddening too. How much I would have enjoyed seeing him leave stud imprints on the bollocks of opposition players while wearing a Newcastle shirt...