The Homecoming Prince

Of course I'm referring to Wayne Rooney.

A few days ago I was on an Everton fans' website and saw there was a poll asking "Do you want Wayne Rooney to come back?" I wondered what the balance of responses was, but the only way I could find out was to answer the question - yes or no? I hesitated for several seconds.  Yes or no? The romantic in me thought yes. The realist voted no. And then I saw I was very much in a minority, 80% had voted yes.

In the summer of 2002 I was running a business with its headquarters in Oxfordshire. I told my finance director, a lady who was a keen football fan, following England at away matches (she was there when the chairs were flying in Charleroi - I don't think she was throwing them) that there was a buzz at Everton about a 16 year old forward who would undoubtedly appear for the first team during the new season. I think what prompted me to tell her was reading that Everton had sold more shirts in pre-season with Rooney's name on the back than any other player. Before his debut. So it didn't take much foresight - lots of people knew and by October, when he scored that goal against Arsenal, ending their 30 match unbeaten run, everyone had heard of him. By the following February he had played for England, aged 17 years and 111 days.

Son after Rooney's Everton debut my FD had been startled, after coming into my office, to realise she was standing by a life size poster of Rooney, which she caught out of the corner of her eye, doing a double take. I'd bought it from a hawker in Goodison Road after a match. Now my office was a cubby hole used for one to one meetings at the most and never for hosting people from outside the company. But even so, it was perhaps a little eccentric for the office the MD of a multi-site business employing some 300 people to have a 6ft poster of a teenager on the wall. But Rooney offered beleaguered Everton fans of the day hope for a brighter future.

Understandably, Rooney felt he could not achieve his potential, in terms of winning trophies, at Everton. If he could not stay, I felt Old Trafford was the best place for him. And now, after becoming Manchester United and England's leading all time scorer and winning a deluge of trophies including 5 Premier League titles and the UEFA Champions League he is back. But will the future be brighter for Everton and Rooney as a result?

I hope so. It would be wonderful if the club could end its 23 year trophy drought, for that's what it will be by the end of the coming season, by winning a cup - the league still seems unrealistic of course. And, while minor compared with what Rooney has already won, it would add a sentimental gloss to a career that, while stellar and glorious in terms of honours, has been strangely anti-climactic compared with that youthful, sky's the limit, promise.

Even if that doesn't happen, some stirring cameos - in my dreams, him scoring the winner in a Merseyside derby - would be marvellous.

So why did I vote "no"? I don't want it to end in disappointment. For the club or for him. I hope he's still got the legs, but I'm not sure. He might not even get many minutes on the pitch. And, even though his attitude is superb - he's always just wanted to train and play football - £160k a week, while a pay cut, is still a lot to pay for a squad player who will mentor the youngsters.

I guess I just fear that getting a red card in the derby is at least as likely as scoring the winner.

But I'm still glad to see him back. Even though I long since binned the poster.