It's a shame when these kids don't realise the opportunity in front of them. My friend's son threw away a excellent chance with a big club in London with some bad behaviour and the only thing you can say is 'what an idiot'.

What still has me shaking my head though - was the way the Rooney transfer was structured, up to £27m from most reports.

Everton will receive half of the £20m fee immediately, with the other half due on 1 August 2005.

A further £3m will follow if Rooney is still a United player by 30 June 2007.

Further payments could follow based on whether he renews his contract, and also depending on his appearances at international level.

So we actually were only guaranteed £20m, in two installments. Shocking.

What a waste.................a complete and utter waste of a god given talent

A few moments later, Kenny took him out in response.

Net result: The 'hardman,' never came anywhere near Billy for the rest of the game.

For me though, Rooney - all day.

If this is true the sale was a good thing or then again you can also go along the line that BK and his chums got us into the terrible situation were we were forced to make the sale so it was a major f'k up and we lost the chance to build a team around the best young prosect/player in the country.

Re the price, it looks cheap today but at the time a (potential) 27m was a whopping amount for a teenager. Then again, had he stayed, who knows what the team could have gone on to achieve and what players we could have attracted.

Lot of ifs and buts - I'd just like to see a hell of a lot more players coming through the youth/reserves. Rooney was 10 years ago already.

Kenwright has let this club down in selling Rooney.
And the fee was not even close to what he was really worth, all in all Kenwright is the sole reason why Rooney did not stay longer, but I think Moyes made it easy for Rooney to leave because Moyes did not know how to deal with such a "hot" talent.

I think Kenwright was too quick to pull the trigger in selling hiim, and if he had waited just a season or so longer he could have gotten 50 million and upwards for him.

The Kings Dock stadium also failed because of Kenwright so he has nothing but let this club down in my view, and still does by staying.

Rooney has never struck me as the type of guy who would be satisfied earning £60k a week playing for his boyhood club. Rooney wants the top money, trophies and the high life of playing for Man Utd.

At no point in premiership history (in my opinion) have we had a strong strike force - we've had maybe 1 top quality striker at various points, but you need at least 2. Having said that, neither have we ever had top quality left and right sided wingers at the same time, nor top quality left and right sided fullbacks.

There's the rub I suppose. We've just never had the quality and strength in depth to have them at the same time, in order to realistically win anything.

If you picked a player for each position out of the last 20 years worth of EFC players you'd probably fashion a side more than capable of a league win. But you need them within reasonable proximity in terms of years to each other.

Sadly, you could say that of more than a dozen teams.

That was a really good attacking squad, probably just missing something in CM. Think we finished 6th that year.....ah, memories - cup winners, god I can barely remember what that feels like now!

What does it tell us. Approaching 40, basic Everton Rules:-

Rule Number 1 – Don't celebrate a new signing until he appears in a blue shirt and has kicked a ball. If you have heard of him, and he falls into the "shit hit" category, it ain't going to happen.

Rule Number 2 – Don't expect that the new bright young thing is nothing more than a young thing until he has started at least 50 games.

Rule Number 3 – Expect a striker on a stinking run to break his run against everton.

I pass the baton on.

It's sad to think of players who never made it but that'll get worse with the premier from home grown players perspective as its all quick fix, instant results, sadly anyone that good will be out the door quicker than a flash.

As much as I wanted him to stay and as sad an indictment of our status as it is, I think his departure was the best thing for Everton.

Can I remind you (if you ever knew) that very close to the time that Man Utd paid £27m for Rooney, Chelsea paid a mere £23m for one Didier Drogba. If you think, at eighteen, Rooney was worth more than twice what Drogba was worth....

I was as sorry as anybody that the lad went; but his departure was the result of pressure by his agent, who undoubtedly had a great deal to gain from the transfer, as much as anything else.

I'm as happy as anybody to lay blame as Boys Pen Bill's door; but you're being ridiculous.

Bill sold way below market value because the banks were calling. I'd think Man Utd would make it their business to know this kind of thing.

Jimmy may have been using Blue Bill's valuation,given a couple of months before Wayne was sold.
"£50 million would not buy Wayne's left boot"

So YOU'RE the only person on here who believes Boys Pen Bill?