Wayne Rooney: Under Performing, Under Pressure and Underhand

Wayne Rooney has an undoubted talent for football.

He has, until this season, shown the world that he can be a very good player indeed. But this season he has also shown the world that he will never be a great player.

He was not alone in wretched form in last summer's World Cup; most of the England side had little to crow about.

When the season started, it was a fresh start for the ex-Evertonian starlet, but it hasn't happened.

He has scored few and performed like a middle-rank midfield player.

There was a flash of brilliance in the Manchester Derby, but still the form for 89 1/2 minutes of that game was way below par.

The pressure seems to be wearing him down, and with off-field issues as well, it appears that all is not well in the mind of Rooney.

And yesterday we saw another side of him.

We saw a cowardly, unprovoked and deliberate elbow smashed into the head of Wigan's James McCarthy.

The referee took no action, but the world knows the truth.

Wayne Rooney is the coward, the sneak, the snide and underhand player who cheats on the field as well as off it.

Wayne Rooney, the man who considers himself above the pack, special, bulletproof.

He may get away with his assault on McCarthy, but he cannot get away from the fact that he is far from a good player right now.

And he will never be considered one of the greats.