Re: Rooney and the legal implications
Unless you've read his contract, you can't possibly know what breaches have been committed and what remedies are available for breach. The few prem players' contracts I have seen were remarkably thin, but they were not for A list players. I imagine Rooney's contract is a bit fuller.
But anyway, damages for breach is completely irrelevant. If they impose disciplinary sanctions under the contract, they will be pretty trivial financially (I believe there is an FA rule limiting the number of weeks' wages a player can be fined by the club) because the lad is worth a bob or two and could afford to go without a few weeks' wages.
If they decide not to play him and/or seek to pee him off further (big damages for breach (if possible) more antagonistic press conferences etc) then he can simply sulk until the summer (probably on full wages) when (we all think) he can buy himself out for £5m and be a free agent. He can't just be sold to the highest bidder in January - he has to agree to go. Their nightmare is if he doesn't co-operate and refuses to leave in January. If they pee him off big time, they could be stuck with him and lose out big time financially.
After all, buyers next summer won't care if he hasn't played a competitive match for 6 months - he has undoubted ability and could regain match fitness.
Unless you've read his contract, you can't possibly know what breaches have been committed and what remedies are available for breach. The few prem players' contracts I have seen were remarkably thin, but they were not for A list players. I imagine Rooney's contract is a bit fuller.
But anyway, damages for breach is completely irrelevant. If they impose disciplinary sanctions under the contract, they will be pretty trivial financially (I believe there is an FA rule limiting the number of weeks' wages a player can be fined by the club) because the lad is worth a bob or two and could afford to go without a few weeks' wages.
If they decide not to play him and/or seek to pee him off further (big damages for breach (if possible) more antagonistic press conferences etc) then he can simply sulk until the summer (probably on full wages) when (we all think) he can buy himself out for £5m and be a free agent. He can't just be sold to the highest bidder in January - he has to agree to go. Their nightmare is if he doesn't co-operate and refuses to leave in January. If they pee him off big time, they could be stuck with him and lose out big time financially.
After all, buyers next summer won't care if he hasn't played a competitive match for 6 months - he has undoubted ability and could regain match fitness.