Rooney v Charlton

[Seamus]

Okay, so with Wayne Rooney moving up to 48 goals and only 1 behind Sir Bobby it looks almost just a matter of time before he passes the record. So is this a good or bad thing for England football. Are we happy that the record for our countries highest goalscorer is going to be Rooney?.

Rooney is a gifted footballer and can be mesmerising when on form but of course his form is to say the least, inconsistent!. Sir Bobby is regarded by those that he played alongside and against as the best. Both players have made almost the same amount of England appearances - Rooney will equal that in his next game and of course he has a few more years in him but bear in mind that quite a few of Rooneys goals came against countries of questionable footballing talent - San Marino, Andorra, Scotland.

The again some might say trying to compare 2 footballers who's careers are 40 years apart is rather pointless!.

[Hams]

I also think its pointless to try and compare the 2 players as they were at their peak so many years apart and also played in different positions

I lost any respect i had for Rooney at the 2010 world cup when he had a go at England's fans for booing the team after another awful display.

I cant really comment on Bobby Charlton as i never saw him play and have only seen a few clips of his goals on TV either for Utd or the 3 Lions.

My personal favourite is Gary Lineker who was badly treated by Graham Taylor at the end plus i also liked Michael Own and Alan Shearer too.

[Pickleman1967]

Old lag I might be, I'm still too young to remember Bobby Charlton, though he is a legend for England by virtue of the fact he was one of our best when we actually won something. It is impossible to compare the two because they both played in very different eras, the game has evolved into something different from the one Charlton participated in.
I remember Rooney looking like the next "golden boy" of England in Euro 2004, but he never progressed from that highly promising (and exciting) start to become what we all hoped he might be. Having said that, I remember a similar "buzz" about John Barnes and Michael Owen, but their light faded a lot sooner than Rooney's. It could be said we overhype our talented players in England, expecting them to win games for us single handed rather than focussing on a winning team play like Germany pulls off with such success. He gets a lot of flak because he has been the one we expected to be "above average", and too often in the big tournaments he has looked distinctly average. The fact that we no longer have a "star" in the line up may actually prove to be a good thing in the long term, if we can "do a Germany" (okay, I'm probably dreaming now). Rooney is like every other England player since 1966, at best a glorious failure. I agree with Steely that the fella has had his day, there may not be much to get the pulse racing on the bench, but when was the last time Rooney got your pulse racing? Good club player with a chequered England career is how I'd sum him up.

[Tipster]

I can't believe that Shearer isn't the top scorer for England. We must have got him late.

I know nothing of Charlton, but can only say that Rooney is our captain, so no questioning his other contribution to the team. As far as goals go - as the stats say - he must have scored some important goals.

He seems like a good lad who has grown up quite a lot.

[Seamus]

he must have scored some important goals.

he's played for england for about 12 years now hasn't he?

which goals of his were actually vitally important?

I can only think of one that was important, the goal against Ukraine in Euro 2012, important but I wouldn't say vitally important.

I did hear of 1 stat yesterday that although he is now level with Linekar, 20 of his goals were against countries that didn't exist when Lineker hung up his boots for England in 1992!

[Hams]

When England have been able to get to the knock out stages of a World cup or Euro tournament i don't ever recall Wayne Rooney stepping
up to the plate to take on the likes of Spain or Germany in a match that really mattered to lead us to victory which is very poor in my view.

Now you could say that neither has any of his team mates like Lampard or Gerrard or that it was the fault of our coaches like Sven Goran
Erikson or Fabio Capello but we should still have done better with what we had in the past but we haven't even been able to get to a final!!

[Sparkyjinx]

Rooney should've opted for the Charlton comb over than waste his money on a dubious looking transplant.

I don't think the two are comparable, but if you're going to then Rooney is more than several miles behind Charlton when it comes to impact, influence & achievements on an International scale.

[Tipster]

He has scored 6 in the Euro's and WC finals. 2 against the Swiss where we won, and 2 against Croatia where you (England) lost. Apart from that it's qualifiers. 14 in friendlies.

So, he's good in qualifiers. We obviously take it for granted that we get there. He has helped to dispel that myth.

[Hams]

To be fair to Rooney he has often done well in friendlies and qualifiers to help us get to the tournaments but when it
really mattered against a quality opponent he has always failed to deliver pretty much like all our other so called world class players.

[Seamus]

and 2 against Croatia where you (England) lost..

Actually we won that one!