Standing in his way are those four summer captures - Jamie Redknapp, Milenko Acimovic, Jonathan Blondel and Rohan Ricketts - not to mention the likes of Gus Poyet and Darren Anderton.
Rooney and Alan Smith failed to fulfil defensive duties as Gregory Tafforeau raced forward and crossed for Acimovic, who stole between Wes Brown and Mikael Silvestre to fire high past Edwin van der Sar from 10 yards.