It's a lesson in spin. In the five months before January, Wayne Rooney lost £700,000. In the same five months he earned £1.5million after tax and hasn't gambled since. How to splash that on a tabloid? 'Roo's £700,000 bets debt - England camp's turmoil...' There are some big emotional problems here, but they're not Wayne's. Two months before the World Cup, another excruciatingly lame, limp-wristed slap at England by a British paper, revealing nothing, motivated by circulation and defended as 'public interest'. There's a 'secret dressing-room gambling ring' panted the Sunday Mirror, then billed it 'world exclusive'.
It's a seedy, nerdy sort of self-abuse. Alex Ferguson's reaction was totally right, calling Rooney 'manna from heaven' for the tabloids, another Best or Beckham to build up, then pick at. It's a familiar pattern: a story based on nothing, three months late and spiced up by tacking on a 'bust-up' - this one a spurious 'rift' with Michael Owen. And even if there was a rift over their shared bookie, Teddy Sheringham and Andy Cole proved well enough you can hate your team-mate and still win the Treble. It comes down to fitting a weak story to a saleable headline, and it happens again and again and again. The rest of Europe must lap it up.
What's even harder to take about this example is the pseudo moral angst. The press, following up the story last week, alluded constantly to 'football's gambling culture' as you might to priests' 'altar-boy culture': something to be ashamed of, something sick. You just have to look at where this moral line is coming from to test its value: British journalists - gambling, smoking, drinking, drug-taking, Auld Slapper-shagging (for all I know) hacks, whose papers promote gambling to their readers every day of the week. Those readers can afford it a lot less than millionaire footballers.
As a role model, Rooney's getting there. His public mistakes in the past two years have been largely insignificant or overblown, and he's maturing. He's also one of the world's top football talents. So slag him off, or support him? With eight weeks till the World Cup, the tabloids need to fight their instincts and drop the self-serving, daft double standards. If the Queen can punt her bollocks off, as they say in the trade, why can't Wayne?
The only red top that cut Rooney some slack last week was the Sun, for their own personal reasons. They've spent the past two months going comically soft on him, trying to dissuade him from pressing ahead with a libel action brought over their false claim that he'd slapped Coleen last April. The case was due to be heard five weeks before the World Cup, raising the prospect of England's 'official paper' being sued by England's official wonderboy. The Sun's way out was to reverse their natural approach and press for an early settlement with a series of cloying, cuddly stories like this: 'While Wayne Rooney's been busy perfecting his ball skills, fiancee Coleen McLoughlin has been honing her perfect size-8 figure...' Sadly, it worked.
Their reaction to the settlement when it came last week was awesome. Relief, big love and, lacing all that together, a sense of pride that three years of chipping at, harassing and abusing Rooney had made him a better person. 'We wish Wayne and the England team every success in Germany,' said a statement, 'and look forward to welcoming them back with the World Cup trophy.'
It's simple. If it all goes well out there, it was the Sun wot won it.