Wouldn't we all!

I would define world class as a player who is wanted all around the world. Gareth Bale is world class. Non of the current squad or any I can think of in the past ten years are world class.

Gerrard was obviously one of the best midfielders in the world in the 2004-2009 period, and Rooney has shown glimpses in his time at United. Right now though, we don't have any players of that standard.

Football is a team Sport ... Companies that want to sell you overpriced garbage need poster boys.

Nike and Gilette, main offenders.

Rooney and Ronaldo semingly need the right setting. Suarez either dosn't or had the back up he needed.

Gareth Bale & to a lesser degree, Aaron Ramsey, are two reasons why we need a Great Britain side.

We'd still probably go out at the 1/4 final stage, but at least we'd look less toothless doing so.

How blinkered are you? He's currently our joint fourth top goal scorer of all time and may well be our top scorer by the time his international career has ended. If that is not playing well then I wish some of the others would play equally badly.
Our expectations for him have always been sky high and he hasn't always lived up to them but he is far from being as hopeless as you are implying.
Paul Gascoigne .. who is often lauded as our most talented player scored 10 international goals in 57 appearances .. Wayne has scored 40 in 92 .. you do the math! So far only Bobby Charlton, Jimmy Greaves and Gary Linekar have done better.

As others have said, we (especially our media) put too much pressure on our players .. they don't play with enough freedom or confidence. Both Eriksson and Capello have talked about it. It's not something they experience when they manage other international sides.

There's a key difference between being statistically one of England's better players and being world class. England don't produce that many world class players and Rooney's not one of them.

Pirlo vs Gerrard and Suarez vs Rooney in teams that otherwise are relatively evenly matched are decent examples of why we fell short.

It's not a Rooney thing, it's an England thing.

Nope, Rooney isn't world class. We haven't had any England world class players for sometime.

I've never thought Rooney was true world class in the sense of being on a par with the best players in his position. I still think he's a very good striker though.

Fit and on form he is amongst the best players England have but his performances seem to vary and I get the impression he is quite moody and it would take a very good manager to get the best out of him. He is someone who needs managed rather than a dependable sort who you know what you are going to get.

England's problems are a lot bigger than Rooney though. I've never understood the obsession in this country to focus everything on one or two individuals post tournament when it's the same problems every time with different individuals involved, which suggests that just swapping a few players around won't magically solve things. People never seem to look at the team aspect of things. We're a very individualistic country.

Exactly, would you want to play for your nation if you know ANY slight slip up will have a media sh|t storm unleashed on you, your family and anyone associated with you?

No wonder that they either look like they turned up for a have to do work assignement or are so over eager they crash out because of this (Beckham 98 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWsEuczNj48).

The excuses coming out are amusing, there is too much pressure, he was played out of position or exceptions were to high and so on.

Just look at London 2012 and see the pressure that Jessica Ennis-Hill was under to win gold, the pressure the cyclists were under and the entire squad pales in comparison to what the pressure the like of Rooney are under.

What about the pressure on Andy Murray last year to win Wimbledon.

Guess what, the Olympic athletes did us proud, Murray won Wimbledon and under intense pressure.

So please stop making excuses because at some point in time you just have accept he not going enough and Rooney has take responsibility for his failures.

I'm not sure that phrase means what you think it means as you've just said Rooney is under far more pressure than those listed, which would contradict your overall anti-Rooney stance.

On that basis Mehrdad Pooladi is currently world class. What a player.

I don't consider Rooney world class and never have - for me a world class player shines when those around him are struggling and can single-handedly lift a team and inspire them or produce that moment of magic that transforms a game.

Anyway at 28 he probably won't be around for England much longer as strikers tend to end their England careers early - Greaves was 27, Owen 28, Shearer 29, Lineker 31 (although a late starter) for example.

Never a world class player, just someone who had the potential. His only standout tournament was Euro 2004. As I said in another thread, he went to Portugal and never came back.

On the club front, he has been a great 'servant' for United (when you ignore the transfer requests), but hasn't come on. The injury he sustained against Bayern Munich in 2010 pegged him back a little. And even if he scored plenty of goals that season, Ferguson never trusted him as an out-and-out striker.

I was surprised to learn rooney only scored 1 goal at the world cup out of his 40 goals but then again messi has only scored 3 out 40 goals.

God help us if he is our next Captain and mouthpiece after just seeing him on ITV doing a press conference

Rooney and his failures, I think you will find that it is a team sport, there are 10 other players on the pitch you know.

Never mind you can go back to watching Andy Murray and his failures next week at Wimbledon.

Andy Murray has two grand slams, an Olympic gold medal and 9 masters titles.

Rooney has won a European Cup, 5 Premier Leagues and 2 League Cups.

Neither of these men could possibly be considered failures.

Exactly, neither men can be seen as failures. Rooney can now take a back seat, and watch Murray become the focus of expectations.

Wes Brown has 2 Champions League titles, 8 Premier Leagues, 3 League Cups and 2 FA cups. The trophy count can be a misleading indication of ability.

Well apart from as a forward scoring a few more goals apart from the ONLY ONE he ever scored in a world cup match.

Oh please, then we can get players in the position they should be and at least play like we did against Italy.

Im sure Wes Brown is very proud of his medal haul, just like you would be if you were a professional footballer.

He suffered very badly with injuries throughout his career and could have achieved more if he had steered clear of injuries.

But who would you whinge about then - answers on a postcard.