Wayne Rooney says no repeat of 'stupid' behaviour for England
Last updated on .From the section Football
Wayne Rooney insists there will never be a repeat of the behaviour that limited his Euro 2012 campaign.
The 26-year-old missed England's opening two games in the summer after being sent off in the 2-2 qualifying draw in Podgorica a year ago.
"That was a stupid thing to do. I regretted it the moment I did it," said Rooney, who will captain his country against San Marino on Friday.
"I apologised to the players and paid the price. That won't happen again."
Rooney will lead England in Friday's World Cup qualifier at a sell-out Wembley in the absence of suspended Steven Gerrard and his injured deputy Frank Lampard - with a promise that his fiery temperament is now fully under control.
The Manchester United striker missed England's matches against France and Sweden after being sent off for kicking Montenegro's Miodrag Dzudovic in the draw which secured England's place in Poland and Ukraine.
Rooney, who was first given the captain's armband in the 1-0 defeat by Brazil in Doha in 2009 and who wins his 77th cap on Friday, said: "If you have seen my performances after that at club level you will have seen the difference.
"I have cut out a lot of the silly tackles and silly mistakes I made as a young lad."
Rooney also says he has put behind him the sort of headlines he made when he criticised England's fans into a television camera following the dismal goalless draw with Algeria in Cape Town at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
"It was partly to do with my own performance. I was partly looking to justify my own performance," said Rooney. "The England fans have been great. They're always there in their thousands and since then I'm a different person and a different player. I've matured."
The words from Rooney, who will go clear into fifth place in the list of all-time England goalscorers if he scores twice against San Marino, came against the backdrop of the new England code of conduct introduced by the Football Association.
Manager Roy Hodgson said: "It was introduced partly because the FA is very keen to make sure the [behavioural] style of the Euros - which compared favourably to some of the things that happened previously - was continued.
"It is conduct we must all adhere to. I had a very interesting discussion with England rugby union coach Stuart Lancaster. He was very keen to make sure everyone was singing off the same hymn sheet.
"I suppose this written code of conduct will at least enable everyone to say we're singing off the same hymn sheet, we all know the words of the hymns so let's make certain we don't make any mistakes with our singing.
"There is a risk it may be elevated to a position it maybe doesn't deserve in the sense that every single thing that happens to a football player anywhere in England is going to be discussed in terms of a code of conduct, but I rather hope it won't quite come to those proportions.
"We really do have to try and behave well at all times but I would like to make the very simple point that we are human beings. We didn't descend on earth from some heavenly body somewhere. Mistakes do happen but are aware our conduct is under a bit more scrutiny than most.
"If we behave well we can do a lot of good and when we behave badly, unfortunately we do a lot of harm."
Comments
Join the conversation
He couldn't control the ball or pass accurately at Euro 12, and the World Cups of 2006 and 2010.
His stupid sending off at Montenegro less than a year ago disrupted the teams preparation for Euro12, and his off field behaviour is not great.
The fact that Fergie overlooks him as Captain for someone like Evra speaks volumes.
previous recent occasions that the standard we expect from our
captains are very, very high indeed ..." and then Rooney is promptly
announced as captain. High standards from Rooney???
Is it really any wonder why Cole used that epithet towards the FA.
+++
Sold against San Marino? Kudos England Marketing team just wish the football team would perform as well.
Can someone please tell the ashen faced baby its actions, not words.
Totally agree and I'll think you will find its the southern goonshow who have absolutely no idea of football and how to play it!!
IMHO there are far more deserving players on the team than Wayne Wooney. In every critical match I've seen of late, he's just not turned up. Why he came on for our 3rd match is beyond me as Carroll/Welbeck were doing just fine. Do we really want a shrinking violet leading us on?
You never see Germans hating schweinsteiger, brazilians hating ronaldinho, italians hating chiellini, spanish hating iniesta or the portuguese hating ronaldo.
Why is it that we hate on our best players all the time and just continously criticise them?
Rooney had a bad world cup 2010? ok, but lets move on now just drop it and support the team!
What amazes me is that we haven't had an intelligent alternative for years - surely the law of averages dictates that we must produce a player with a positive number IQ at some stage in the next decade?
Fancy rewarding his actions with this honour
Unfortunately I doubt it, he'll be too worked up and when he hits the first negative situation he'll resort to type - aggresive, hot headed and a liability.
Craig Stirling Formerly Fae Busby
Sounds like that famous rant by Keegan.....he was also talking rubbish at the time.