THE TELEGRAPH
Football has become dominated lately by outside issues, racist chanting, the call for new technology, lousy referees and, on this big FA Cup night, the return of Wayne Rooney to Goodison Park, where he grew up. Player returns to former club is hardly the most unique storey in football, albeit it one who cost £27 million.
None of that, however, has disturbed the immutable law of football that superior sides wipe the floor with less gifted ones, which is basically what United did here. They have been doing it to Everton since they last lost to them in the 1995 final, which seems to be taking vindictiveness too far.
Everton's players became as distracted by the Rooney issue as their supporters, so determined not to let him score that they continually ignored more dangerous runners. Thus centre halves Alan Stubbs and Joseph Yobo were still looking round for a little fat bloke when Quinton Fortune rose to head home Cristiano Ronaldo's cross in the 24th minute.
United are clearly taking their defence of the trophy a lot more seriously than when they were last holders four years ago. Then, they all but dropped it in the nearest skip as they flew off to sell some shirts in Brazil, claiming they were playing in a so-called world club championship for the good of the English game.
Faces contorted with haste spat their venom at the teenager they used to adore ,Wayne Rooney's team-mates answered for him in the best possible way and Everton's dubious masters of abuse slunk away having felled United's goalkeeper with a missile.
Rooney, the 19-year-old Evertonian who chose to make a career move by moving to United, conducted himself impeccably. Those fans who howled their invective soon discovered that the youngster was determined not to be upset.
Yes, he had a quiet match as he played alone up front, trying to find a way past Alan Stubbs, the Everton captain who used to drive him to and from training before Rooney passed his driving test. There were boos every time the ball went near him; phoney cheers when he made a rare mistake. He put his head down and got on with the tie and only responded as he left the pitch at half-time to jeers and the chant of "you fat b*****d".
At one point he collided with Stubbs, who went down holding his head, but the youngster was quick to apologise and the incident ended with their arms around each other.
THE OBSERVER
'Once a Blue, always a Red,' taunted Manchester United fans as Everton slid limply out of the FA Cup.
That Wayne Rooney's return passed largely without incident was a relief, but for the tie of the round to slip by almost unnoticed was much more disappointing.
Rooney was not required to heap further misery on his former team-mates: goals by Quinton Fortune and Cristiano Ronaldo did that and, as the United choir correctly pointed out, it was far too easy. Champions League? You know the rest.
A police helicopter hovered above Goodison as the United coach smuggled its cargo into the players' entrance an hour before kick-off, which seemed a tad over the top for just a couple of dozen fans making hand gestures at the smoked glass windows and raising a half-hearted chant of 'Judas'.
Rooney's return to his boyhood club after a £27million transfer shattered his and other Evertonians' romantic ideals was always an occasion that was going to be marked, it was just that no one seemed to be able to make up their mind how.
Police barricades and a metal security door prevented supporters outside the ground getting so much as a glimpse of their former hero stepping off the coach, yet though he will have heard the jeering Rooney might also have spotted a number of mobile phones and cameras raised periscope-like in the hope of snatching a picture.
He may no longer be the pin-up boy he once was in these parts, but clearly he retains more star quality than most of the players he left behind. That might not have appeared the case when he was involved in a touchline altercation with a female employee of Ellesmere Port Motor Auctions when leaving the pitch after the warm-up.
Everton had begged their supporters not to invade the pitch nor do anything too provocative, but did not appear to have considered the risk posed by match-ball sponsors waiting to have their photograph taken on the grass.
Rooney responded to a comment from a young woman with the sort of heated invective he normally reserves for referees and had to be calmed down by minders.
THE SUNDAY TIMES
All the pre-match hype and hullabaloo had been about You Know Who, so sod’s law dictated that Wayne Rooney played no more than a supporting role on his return to Goodison Park as goals in each half from Quinton Fortune and Cristiano Ronaldo safely installed Manchester United in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup.
Second in the Barclays Premiership and through to the last eight in the Cup, Sir Alex Ferguson and his team still harbour Double ambitions, and have made clear their intention to fight Chelsea every step of the way on both fronts.
United goalkeeper Roy Carroll was inconvenienced only once — and that was by a coin thrown from the crowd, which hit him a painful blow on the head. A mobile phone was also hurled at him and just missed. He could have picked it up and called home, such were the limitations of an Everton attack stripped by suspension and injury of James Beattie, Tim Cahill and Duncan Ferguson.
The temperature dropped sharply on Merseyside, but nothing the weather could come up with chilled the blood quite like the graffiti daubed on a school wall just around the corner from Goodison.
"Rooney Die" it exclaimed. Welcome back, Wayne, to the self-styled "People’s Club". The police found it necessary to mount their biggest security operation in and outside the ground, where there were shirts on view describing Rooney as "Judas" and a "Traitor". Sadly, these things are inevitable, as Sol Campbell will testify, but it is still a pity that the young man should have to endure such bile.
Needless to say, his every contact with the ball was booed, but those erstwhile fans turning on him now should ponder the fact that his £28m transfer probably saved their club from "doing a Leeds", as financial meltdown has come to be known. The tie had been billed as "Rooney’s Return", but more significant for United and their ambitions, at home and abroad, was Ruud van Nistelrooy’s reappearance in their squad. The Dutchman failed to make the final 16, but will be back in a matter of days rather than weeks.
Ferguson took one look at a pitch that resembled a badly tended allotment and consigned Ryan Giggs, with his troublesome hamstring, to the bench, with this week’s European date with Milan in mind. Otherwise, the United manager took the Cup rather more seriously than Arsenal and Chelsea, fielding what was very nearly a full-strength side.
Ronaldo tapped in the second, some more of the sting was drawn. But idiots will be idiots. An isolated number of fans continued to spew fury in Rooney’s direction and a gaggle even stayed in the freezing cold for an hour after full time to chant "Die, Die Rooney" at the United bus.
When United signed Rooney, Sir Alex Ferguson predicted anger towards the teenager would be a temporary thing. "There’s always been a great association between the two clubs," Ferguson said. "Their fans have got to recognise Everton only survived by two points last season because of his performances."
But maybe Fergie missed the point. The goals Rooney scored for Everton and the £28m the club received for him could not compensate the faithful for what they lost when he departed. His transfer took away hope, and nothing can make up for that.
Teams such as Everton, in the strata below the elite, may produce teams who can make news occasionally, but the days when they could hold on to individuals of world renown are gone. For the brief time Rooney was at Everton, he broke the mould but when he signed for United, football’s new order was asserted again.
THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY
Another bad Saturday for Everton, though it could have been much worse than mere elimination from the FA Cup. Already on a final warning after two pitch invasions this season, they now face the threat of a disciplinary inquiry after a coin thrown from the Gwladys Street end housing home supporters laid out the Manchester United goalkeeper, Roy Carroll, during the second half of a disappointing tie.
Carroll was able to continue but with Wayne Rooney also the target of other objects thrown - with less accuracy - earlier on, the Football Association, whose new chief executive Brian Barwick was at the ground, need to be seen to be taking action. It is understood, however, that they will be keener to punish the individuals concerned with life bans, rather than hitting the home club with ground closure or even a points deduction.
As for the game, it was comfortable for the holders most of the way. Quinton Fortune scored midway through the first half and Cristiano Ronaldo early in the second, Everton - without James Beattie and Duncan Ferguson - lacking the attacking resources even to threaten retaliation. Marcus Bent, forced to play on his own up front throughout, was unlucky with one header but frittered away a glorious opportunity to equalise just before half-time. The wide players, Leon Osman and Kevin Kilbane, were held in check by the experience of Gary Neville and Gabriel Heinze, whereas United's wingers Ronaldo and Fortune created problems throughout.
So a long-standing hoodoo continued: victory over United in the 1995 Cup final, lovingly replayed on big screens before kick-off, was Everton's last success against them in any competition. Now Sir Alex Ferguson's team must have a strong chance of retaining the trophy, a feat achieved only three times in the last 50 years. "Everton were missing a couple of players and that helped us," Ferguson acknowledged. "But what we did today was really professional. We had good discipline and concentration, which you needed on that pitch."