Not easy taking care of talisman Rooney

Manchester United 4, Hull City 0

Four–goal hero Wayne Rooney knows it will be impossible to please his two masters for the rest of the season.

Rooney’s amazing exploits against Hull swept Manchester United to the summit of the Barclays Premier League and took him to within a hat–trick of his best–ever season tally as a professional.

Almost immediately, the 24–year–old began looking forward to a crunch week that starts with the eagerly–awaited Carling Cup decider with Manchester City on Wednesday before United visit Arsenal for what could be a first–versus–second Premier League blockbuster.

Ferguson knows he needs his talisman. Back home in Italy where he is recovering from knee surgery, Fabio Capello will glory in Rooney’s achievements whilst secretly wishing Wayne could take a break.

But what would be good for Capello is impossible for Ferguson.

There is no chance of Ferguson taking Rooney out of the firing line for a prolonged period given his importance to United at present.

The one on–pitch frustration for United was that it took them an hour and a quarter to get a second once Rooney had opened their account by netting the rebound after Paul Scholes’ piledriver had been too hot to handle for Boaz Myhill.

But positives were plentiful. Rio Ferdinand completed the full 90 minutes of his comeback after a three–month absence and produced an assured defensive display.

On only his fifth league start Michael Owen caught the eye, even if he failed to take a couple of decent chances, while Nani produced possibly his best display since joining the Red Devils for £17million from Sporting Lisbon in 2007, creating Rooney’s second and third goals before substitute Dimitar Berbatov set up a fourth.

But there is an undercurrent that goes far beyond exploits on the field.

Financially, even if the successful bond issue has taken any immediate worries away from club finances, the size of United’s debt – now more than £700million – and the possibility of the training ground at Carrington or even Old Trafford being sold, as laid out in the prospectus for the bond, has mobilised an anti–Glazer faction which has plenty of sympathisers.