Thetownend.com

Di Canio keen on Rooney
           

 PAOLO Di Canio has confirmed his interest in Gillingham’s Luke Rooney and admitted that he is monitoring his situation after the want-away winger refused to sign a contract extension recently.
           

http://www.thisisswindontownfc.co.uk/news/headlines/9386756.Di_Canio_keen_on_Rooney/?ref=rss
           

Really though we were going for Wayne

It's pretty obvious to me that Ritchie will be going in January and Rooney is seen as his replacement.

It doesn't say that though. He passed comment on Rooney, just like he did on matey boy from Oxford.

Di Canio is straight talking, if he says Ritchie is staying then he's staying.

Rooney played well against us this season so it's understandable Di Canios keen on him, not sure he has the right attitude though and reading the comments about him being dropped for not signing a new contract on the Gills forum it's obvious they are not too bothered about him being dropped or leaving and none of them rate him as that good a player...

Time will tell.

Past experience shows that whenever our best player gets this sort of speculation they leave. Seen it all before - the manager, even the chairman, says he's going nowhere. The simple fact is that, nowadays, the players get ideas in their heads once other teams from a higher league gets interested in them and they end up leaving. Swindon fans might say that Bournemouth is not a step up, but the reality is that they are a league above us and, for the moment, they are a step up. Of course they may well not be in a couple of years...........

I don't think it's in any way being disloyal to the player concerned to say that that's all part of the business model that keeps clubs like ours going.  We buy low, develop the player and sell high.  The only surprising aspect to this particular story is that the buying club is Bournemouth...a club for whom League placing is the only metric on which they outscore us.

When normal service resumes (see earlier comments about getting out of this division) we should be nicking their best players...not the other way around.  If we do decide not to cash in in January, I can see Matt being a part of the core that could take us up this year and then make another promotion push next year - just like under Macari in the 1980s.  The building blocks are there.

It's our own fault for sponsoring him this year if he goes.

The problem nowadays though, and it's the reason why we will never reach the dizzy heights of the Premier again is that good players don't stick around for long enough. When we were successfull under Macari, Ardiles and Hoddle there was a core of players that were there throughout. And good players too - Digby, Calderwood, White... plus other long-serving players such as Ling, Taylor, Bodin. When you think about it, it is amazing that Calderwood stayed for so long. If he was there now he'd be gone after one good season.......Ritchie will be gone, if not in January, in the summer. And I'm sure that Caddis and Ferry will soon be targeted too. I'd love to be wrong. I'd love for the players to prove me wrong and help build a team that really good go places. Can't see it though. Money talks. And, honestly, who can blame them for wanting to better themselves?