The video will start in 8 Cancel

Stay in control of the latest Blues news with our Everton newsletter Sign up now Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Dave Prentice and Phil Kirkbride debated Wayne Rooney's potential return last October. Their views haven't changed. Here's a republished version of their arguments.

Prentice: Rooney still great but it's wrong time to turn clock back for Blues

When I first heard the words “Wayne Rooney”, they were uttered by the Everton institution that is Colin Harvey, during his weekly summing up of the Under-19 side then under his charge.

I’d wander down to Bellefield, and he’d give me a potted match report of the weekend game for that day’s Echo.

On this occasion he said: “We lost 3-1. Wayne Rooney scored the goal,” in his typically clipped fashion.

“Wayne Rooney?” I ventured. “I’ve not heard that name before.”

“You wouldn’t lad. He’s only 14,” Colin replied.

My voice elevated an octave. “Fourteen? And he’s scoring goals for the Under-19s?”

Colin’s hushed words which followed will stay with me forever.

He spoke reverentially and respectfully: “Oh yes. He’s like a young Dalglish. Only quicker of thought and quicker across the ground.”

Then added quickly: “And for God’s sake don’t you dare put that in your paper!”

And I didn’t. Until now.

But 17-years have since passed and young Wayne is now an elder statesman. He’s still quicker across the ground than Dalglish. But then Kenny is 65.

But do Everton really need another ‘elder statesman’, a striker whose best days have been and gone? They’ve been there and done that with Samuel Eto’o.

Rooney would undoubtedly enjoy the occasional cameo, like Eto’o’s at Burnley, but he has scored only twice in his last 23 appearances for Manchester United. Both against Bournemouth.

He was a force of nature when he broke breathtakingly onto the Goodison scene in 2002. Now nature has taken its toll.

Like it had with David Ginola, Paul Gascoigne, Kenny Sansom and Norman Whiteside when they all pitched up at Goodison.

Rooney isn’t anywhere near as past it as that quartet (Whiteside still scored goals but injuries had taken their toll on his frame) – but equally he’s still nothing like the player who once sent a vibrant tremor of expectancy coursing through Evertonian veins every time he touched the ball.

He’s still a good player. Very good, in fact.

But so, too, is the player whose place he would almost certainly take – the diamond from Wavertree.

Ross Barkley can get even better. Wayne Rooney can’t.

It would be a vanity signing for Everton, a lure to perhaps attract other high profile names – but one fraught with danger.

Let us cherish those memories of Arsenal, Leeds, the Darren Moore mickey-taking and the late, late winner against Aston Villa.

And leave Wayne Rooney’s Everton career in the past tense.

Kirkbride: Lost it? No chance - Wayne would still improve Everton team

He's lost it.

He's got no pace.

He doesn't get in the United team anymore so why should we accept their cast offs?

And so the criticisms for Wayne Rooney continue to flood in.

But the thing is, he hasn't lost it.

He doesn't need to rely on his pace.

And if United don't want him then more fool them. Everton will have him.

Wayne Rooney remains a class act but one increasingly finding himself without a clear identity at Old Trafford.

Goodison is his spiritual home.

But more than just the sentiment and emotion that comes with a Rooney return, is the fact that he improves this Blues team and in an area where they badly lack the guile, craft and know-how he can offer in spades.

Ronald Koeman wants more productivity from his forward players and Rooney would bring that.