Who's better: Rooney or Gascoigne?

I admit i didnt see much football pre 1990, but if what your saying is that gazza played the best part of his career out before he was 23, then you can't say he is anywhere rooneys talent. the 1990/1991 season was good for gazza, but it was his last decent season, as at the end of it was when his injury problems began. post 91, what did he have? a good game v scotland in 1996, a couple of years north of the border playing in the barbarian leagues, wow, what an achievement. that puts him right up there with such world legends as ally mccoist and rod wallace. yes, at lazio, he shone at times, but was injured far too much to call his tenure there a succesful period. he would not have had more than half a dozen decent games, after all he played only 46 times in 3 seasons, with a staggering return of 2 goals per season average.

in mentioning the three above players in conjuncture with the question i posed was to point out that fergie did not always get the best out of the most talented players, and that some did a) go off the rails b) get too big for their boots and not listen to fergie c) and that some players did fail under fergies tuteledge. not that ince, whitehside or sharpe were similar to gazza in any way, or that their problems or expulsions from OT were similar.

basically, gazza could have been many things, but his career was too short to say what he could have been. I also hold a certain player who never got to see a career beyond his early 20s up to unbelievably high standards, Duncan Edwards. from what i have read this would have been one of englands greatest ever players, maybe even the greatest. he won 2 championships by age gazza was at 1990, and had also won games for england against the likes of germany in germany (when they were world champions) and also brazil, with most of the side that would go on to be world champions. from what i have read he had everything that a player could possibly want or need to have to succeed, and had already done more in the embryonic part of his career than most do in its entirety. but i cant go around saying that he was better than Bobby Moore, even though positionaly, Moore might have never got a game for the NT if Edwards had lived.

the real gazza never lived long enough to make a decent value judgement of his career. it is only because he developed at a time when english players were trained with such little regard for technical wizardry that he stands to for so many. he peaked before he was even 24 years of age. in any other country such as france, brazil, italy or spain, he would have been forgotten long ago.

Yes, we now all realise you never saw him play. It's OK, we can move on now. In fact, i think this whole thread is done. Anyone who is actually in a position to have an opinion agrees: Gazza was miles ahead of any other player England have produced in the past 30 years.

Why? It's not as if Rooney has done anything after his 23rd birthday.

ok, that is very true.

rooney could go and get a major injury and spend the rest of his career moping about, drinking, doing drugs, beating up his woman, and then stuck in therapy, but im working on the premise that he will be protected by his manager, by his club, and would return from any non career threatening injury in good shape, just as he has done on two separate occasions now. he has already proven that he can deal with time on the injury bed without going to peices, or gaining seveal stone in weight, so, even if he were to suffer a horrendous injury that messed him up for several seasons, like gazza, im sure he would still be back and able to get into shape and perform, just like gazza never managed after 1991.

Rooney isn't even in his prime yet!!!! His best could be 2 or 3 years away.

Gascoigne hands down...

Rooneys team is what makes him look good. if you were too take him and put him on a team like aston villa next season do you really think he would be as good as he is now. I guess what i'm trying to say is I would give rooney more credit if he wasn't riding ronaldos or any other manU players coat tail.

yeah, cuz he was crap at everton, wasn't he? oh, wait a minute...

My bad! how could forget about that groundbreaking first season at everton where he scored 6 goals. or that amazing second season where he scored 9 goals. I think we need to find some everton fans so they can tell us how great of a player he was.

Anyway's i'm finish with this thread now. the last thing I want to do is get into a another argument with some gimpy rooney fan. I would have a more intelligent conversation with a brick wall.

He was pretty pap a lot of the time, as it goes. Not his fault of course, he was barely out of nappies and being asked to carry a mediocre team on his shoulders, but there you have it.

When you show me a video with 6 or 7 goals where Rooney just runs straight past 3, 4, 5, 6 defenders like they aren't there and then applies a simple deadly finish, or where he arrows a 35 yard free kick into the top corner like it was from 5 yards against one of the best keepers of his generation in his prime, then we can talk.

My head says Rooney but my heart says Gazza.

I'd go along with that at the moment. Gazza had something the likes of which I've yet to see since. I was only 7 in the 1990 world cup and my memories of him in Euro 96 are hazy to say the least, but what he did against Scotland and Holland will live with me forever. He is my favourite ever player, despite the fact that I was too young to remember most of his career.


Rooneys my favourite modern day player at the moment. He plays in a similar way to Gazza, but Gazza played with a smile on his face. I think it was his personality coupled with his talent that made him the star he was. He weas a clown touched by genius and everyone loved him.........

in one week rooney scored more goals v roma than gazza did in three seasons in serie a for lazio!

Gosh ... conclusive stuff.

Rooney may be only 21, but let's not assume he's going to get better and better. Maybe he's already peaked.

WOW!!! Well ******** me Rooney must be the winner so!

Gazza Problems aside and as big a tramp/Nutter that he was and the fact that he Bottled it several times but he was a genius! . He really was a class act.

Rooneys 21 at the Minute and Going thru a really shit vein of form - I think there is a lot more to come from Wayne ,Hopefully Fergie is able to get the Best out of him as he has done with his other Young guns.

Only in a few years can we really judge this thread but it will be be some achivement for Wayne if People Look back and say he was Better than Gazza -Purely on footballing terms mind -

Well to make this a fair comparison.

Gascoigne's made his England debut at 21 years old, Rooney has already got 38 caps, all Rooney needs is 19 more and he's already got more Caps for England than Gazza did in his entire career, Rooney has already scored more International goals.


So far, Rooney by a country mile.

People who criticise Rooneys form or ability at Everton clearly have not idea. How you can give a 16/17 year old a hard time for setting the world alight in his first full season is a petty fool of the highest regard.


Rooney will achieve more, of that there is no doubt......

You're all off your fúcking tits.