All very true. A brilliant player. And I'm not sure anyone actually disagrees.
The question is... Is he the right player to bring out the best in the players we already have? And thats where people disagree.
Most would agree that Rooney is best playing off and behind another striker. Personally, I felt Rooney's best partnership was with Saha last year, because of the qualities Saha had. It was a fantastic partnership in prospect because of all the complimentry abilities they had. But it wasnt quite perfect, because neither player was a fantastic finisher. They both still missed chances they really should be scoring 9 times out of 10.
For me, Rooney was good last year but nowhere near his best. I think we lost the two things that marked Rooney out from a crowd - A fantastic long ranged shot and a very clever through pass. These were the features of his game that I enjoyed most and the two things I feel he was most effective with. We also stopped seeing Rooney's great dribbles he'd come up with in the past. I can think of 4 or 5 times where Rooney had in the past gone past 3 or 4 players... And I admit, he usually ended up fluffing the shot. But those are the moments he is capable of and I feel his 'form' and these abilities are directly tied with him getting back to his natural position behind a striker. I think thats where he has most confidence, thats where he feels natural and can express himself best. He can't do any of these with his back to goal. He needs to face it.
So, because the press and certain posters were sure we were trying to sign Berbatov, I made sure to watch Spurs as often as possible. And because of that I got to see some really good games. But I also noticed that Berbatov was not playing where he was played for Leverkusen many years ago when we played them in the champions league. He was dropping off in almost every attack and was only playing in front of Robbie Keane when the keeper was kicking the ball half way up the pitch. As a side note, half the time Berbatov would bring the ball out of the sky and down to the ground brilliantly. Half the time it would get away from him. But it was a good tactic, as it worked somewhat.
This is someone I'd rather us not sign. Not because he isnt a fantastic player, but because we already have the stars of our team and now we just need to ally them with players who will get the best from them. And thats not to say that whoever we sign cant be a star player himself, just that its far more important that they have the right complimentry style and ability to bring the best out of, in this case, Rooney and Ronaldo.
For me, Rooney has good pace but not great. He can finish well, but often he wont. He plays best behind another forward, who makes the runs over the top and is more relied upon to score goals than he is, which allows for Rooney's mistakes in front of goal... Else he'll cost us games with his finishing. And Rooney at his best, was as good as any off striker at picking out the run of his partner and playing a great through pass to set him away.
So thats why I would like us to sign someone with good pace, with a will to get behind the last defender and through on goal and with a very good finish. Because I feel that will get the best out of Wayne Rooney.
I will add that, with regard to Berbatov - £30 million would be far too much to pay for a player who is 27 and not already at one of the top clubs. Normally when that kind of fee is paid, its because a player has 10 years left on his career and awesome potential to become one of the best 2 or 3 players in his position during that time. Or, its a player who is essential to one of Europe's elite top clubs. Real, Barcelona or in the past, Juventus.
I think there's so much hype over him because he is skillful and if you watch highlights, he will always do something classy to impress you, that the fee would be £25 million or more. Which to me is way over the top, especially considering we'll be paying that for the services of Tevez too.
Now again, this is my opinion and not everyone will agree. But Tevez last season showed himself not to be a fast player. I'm thinking and hoping it was partly to do with fatigue and not having rest, as I can remember a few games where he looked a tad bit more mobile - but still not that fast. I hope that next season he will show that he does have a Rooney standard of pace, but I'm not at all sure its going to happen. Instead I'm of the belief he'll only be slightly faster than he was this season.
And having watched Berbatov a lot this season also, I feel they would not be a good combination. I feel that once again, like Rooney, Tevez' best partner is a mobile goal scorer who will get on the end of his creativity and score the majority of the goals between the two of them. And regardless of how skillful Berbatov is, thats not him.
So again, I say that paying £30 million for Tevez as we will need to by the end of this season and then £30 million (or 25) on Berbatov, when they wont be a good partnership sounds mad. If we manage to finally get Manucho here, he'd have even more problems playing with Berbatov.
And thats my thinking explained in depth. I'm sure lots of people will disagree, but tough turd nuggets, thats my opinion and I've seen all the players (minus Manucho) in question enough to be entirely solid on it.
Although having said all that, if we got him much cheaper than expected he'd hardly be the worst player to buy. Just not one of the best either, again, in my opinion.
Edit - I also feel Ibrahimovic is more mobile and would therefore be a better partner for Tevez and Rooney than Berbatov, whilst being a very similar style of player. So if we're going to go £30 million on that kind of player, he'd only be my 2nd choice.
You're clearly in love with him, so I won't bother trying to convince you.