Rooney's knee..Wembley pitch..United V England again..

Its a common jibe put towards United fans.

That we HATE England..the football team that is. That we WANT England to fail..all of the time.

Of course, that is rubbish. But once again more fuel has been added to the fire in the form of Wayne Rooney's knee injury and the fact that they made our players play on a pitch that was unfit for thoroughbred footballers.

As a United fan i have been cursing and berating England for putting United's season in jeopardy this last week. Rooney had the knock when he joined up with the national team. It was thought that he would train with them, and probably sit this one out. But no. He played for a large chunk of a game, on a strip of grass no better than a recreational park for delinquents, in a game that had zero significance except for the players on the fringe of the squad. Did Capello really need to see Rooney running around like a daft nutter in the hole position? I think not.

This is the oldest conflict in footballing terms. Club versus country. We are sick of it at United. The truth is Rooney should know better, and use that head of his. I don't buy all this 'oh he just wants to play' trash..A footballer of his nature is a finely tuned physical specimen. After a season where he has played a ton of games, he needs to manage himself. He isn't a 12 year old running around the local park playing with boundless energy without a care in the world. He needs to take stock of his situation and his responsibility to his employers. Yes, go to the World Cup..break bones in the cause of England winning important games, but don't go putting the Premier League and Champions League trophies at risk! No wonder why Fergie was openly furious. The boy is so important to us its unreal now. Credit to him for the way he has played this year. He will be a big miss against Milan.

The diabolical state of the Wembley turf was also bang out of order. If the FA cant get a decent field of play together for one of their matches, what chances have we really got of winning a World Cup?? THAT PITCH has already robbed us of Michael Owen for the season. People will point towards Owen's fragile state as the problem, but we had a cup final to win and the boy showed his value. Pitches that just evaporate in the manner of the hallowed Wembley turf are a complete health hazard to players. It reminds me of the pitch at Monaco's famous 'on top of a car park' stadium. We played there in the Champions League..3 inches deep of soil laid on concrete..and we lost 4 players to hamstring injuries that night. Just not acceptable in this day and age.

So it seems that everyone's just gonna have to listen to us United fans banging on about all this type of stuff while the same problems persist. And you can bet a million dollars that if a Steven Gerrard blows out a knee, or a Frank Lampard rips apart a hamstring in the name of England, that the fans of those clubs will be saying the same things that we are.