A Gillingham view on new signing Luke Rooney
Paolo Di Canio has finally got his man. Luke Rooney was unveiled yesterday as Swindon’s third signing of the January Transfer Window, arriving from Gillingham for an undisclosed fee.
We’ve asked Gillingham blog Gills365 for their view on Rooney, the reasons for his decision to leave Prestfield and what can we expect from the 21 year old at the County Ground.
Can you tell us a little about Rooney, what position he plays and how long has he been with Gillingham?
Luke is a young, talented, but raw forward who has come through the club’s youth system. He has shown flashes of genuine ability, but he has struggled to establish himself as a first-choice selection under Andy Hessenthaler.
Most of his appearances have been in wide midfield / wing areas but in truth he isn’t a winger. His best position is in the hole, playing in a free role behind the strikers.
What are the reasons behind Rooney’s decision to leave Gillingham?
Only he can answer that, but from what I’ve seen and heard money appears to be the driving factor. He has turned down contract offers from the club on two separate occasions during his career.
Interestingly, fellow youngster Jack Payne, who has had a bigger impact on the club, progressed faster and matured quicker, accepted his contract offer. He’ll play at a higher level, for sure. The jury remains out on Rooney.
What type of winger is Rooney? Orthodox and working along the line, or inside-out and willing to drift inside to support the forwards?
As I mentioned earlier he isn’t a natural winger and that is reflected in his position play. He finds space very well indeed, but has little positional discipline. That may come over time if played consistently. That didn’t happen at Gillingham and unless he improves markedly I’m not convinced it’ll happen at Swindon either.
One thing that immediately jumps out looking at his stats is his disciplinary record. In 20 appearance for Gillingham this season he’s picked up four cautions and sent off twice. What has been the reason for this? Bad refereeing decisions, poor tackling or a young lad with a temper?
He does have a bit of a temper, but certainly isn’t a dirty player. Most of his cards have been picked up through sheer frustration. He has shown a tendency to moan at teammates and officials when things aren’t going his way.
Paolo Di Canio wants respect, and plenty of it, yet he’s signing a contract rebel. Is Rooney a team player or individual?
In my opinion, he still plays very much an individual.
He still needs to learn when to play the simple pass and, when playing out wide, needs to improve the defensive side of his game and track back more to support his fullback. He has talent when on the ball – no doubt about that – but his decision making needs a fair bit of work, as he can excite and frustrate in equal measure.
With Di Canio marshaling his troops on a tough diet of double training and high demands of discipline, will Rooney fit into the team ethic or have we got another Leon Clarke on our hands?
I can’t comment on Leon Clarke but Rooney appears very confident in his ability. He was the young fans’ favourite, with his name probably helping a little, too. If his name was Luke Hodgkins I doubt so many of our young fans would have been chanting his name quite as much.
A change of club – and manager – will mean Luke has to prove himself from scratch. It could be the making of him, but I think he’ll need to improve some elements of his on-pitch attitude to do that.
Has Rooney been involved in any key games or goals?
His best moment was probably his sublime 20 yard chip against Southampton.
Fast forward to 1:17 for the Rooney goal vs Southampton
Rooney has come on as a substitute and scored often. Is he a rabbit killer / flat track bully or simply a game changer?
When games are stretched and legs are tiring Rooney can be a real weapon. It’s unfair to label him a flat-track bully as we’ve not seen him play as a first-team starter for more than a few games in a row. I believe he can be a real game-changer, especially coming off the bench as an impact sub.
As a Gills fan, seeing one of your own trained players join STFC must be a bitter pill to swallow. Would you have liked Gillingham to do more to keep Rooney?
While I appreciate the history of the rivalry between the two clubs my take on the move is no different because Luke is going to Swindon. It is the same as if he went to any other League Two club.
If the move is money-motivated then I’m happy for him to go. No player is bigger than the club and Rooney hasn’t done enough to warrant being on the same sort of money as our established, experienced pros, many of whom have played at a higher level and earned numerous promotions.
In contrast, Rooney has yet to complete a full season as a first-team starter. Even compared to fellow youngster Jack Payne, who has broken into, and cemented his place, in the first team, Rooney hasn’t delivered as much. Payne was also offered a new deal at around the same time as Rooney. Payne accepted his, Rooney turned his down. If given the ultimatum of choosing between the two, I’d choose Payne.
I see the move to Swindon as a sideways move status-wise. Football-wise I suspect he’ll end up an impact sub for Swindon, just as he was for Gillingham, so there’s little difference there. We’re even in similar positions in the table.
I think the main reason for the move is money. That’s fine. Most people would seriously consider a like-for-like job change on better money. Is it a serious career progression from Gillingham? I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
Thanks to Simon @ Gills365 for taking the time to answer these questions
The Washbag 
Seems like an honest appraisel of the guy. Perhaps Di Canio should have asked these questions before signing him up. We shall see, Di Canio doesnt seem to mind taking a gamble, to his credit admits when he makes a mistake. Presumably the time will come when the chairman says he has had enough and there no more money to spend. Di Canio and Wray seemingly have a good relationship. I suspect this is based on us moving on up. Interesting and exciting times certainly. Red Army
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Sideways move? We’re no Manchester United but I’ve always considered us to be a bigger club than Gillingham.
I’m looking forward to seeing him play, sounds like he could be exciting / frustrating in equal measure. Agree with the post above that he does seem like a calculated gamble. If he has as much ability as the Gills fan suggests and PdC can iron out some of his faults then we might have another Matt Ritchie on our hands. If he cant we’ll probablly lose money on him in the long run.
To my knowledge I’ve only seen him play once, and he was very impressive against us at the CG earlier this season (as were the Gillingham team to be fair, best L2 team I’ve seen this season) He was very unlucky to not score a very good goal.
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Bathtime, you said: “Perhaps Di Canio should have asked these questions before signing him up”…. I can picture the scene in the STFC Board Room, Jeremy Wray has read this blog, put his head head in his hands exclaiming “WHY DIDNT I THINK TO ASK THAT!!!”
I think you should give our club a little more credit. PDC, JW and Co have demonstrated every week that they are professional, calculated and meticulous in their planning. Yes this may be a ‘risk’ but as Fangita says, it would be a calculated one.
Perhaps they deserve a little more credit…..??
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JW is so amazing, he needs two heads!
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i can only liken the views of gillingham fans on rooney to those of ours over austin when he left… when your bitter, no matter how “measured” you try to project yourself, it comes out…
the last paragraph shows this fantastically well…
this reminds me a bit of when blackburn bought shearer from us all those years back, we were really up against them and on a roll, but as if to say “you aint gonna take over us”.. it did the trick…
i guess psychologically this comes with an added extra… it would lift our team knowing were getting our opponents best players, and dent their aspirations… just as it did when blackburn bought shearer from us all those years back… it did the trick then, and i can see it doing the trick now…
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Paul, if you think Headley is bitter I suggest you read what he said again.
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i did mention the bitterness of fans in general, and i still think the last paragraph has some barbed wire approach about it… if not bitter certainly close to…
im not knocking the guys answers on the whole, just saying a player is taking a sideways step to a team much similar to his own, just for money doesnt sound like a fair portrayal when you consider the facts…
still thats football, all about opinions! 🙂
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I’m a neutral but have watched Gillingham a few times this season and last. I’ve never understood the ‘hype’ surrounding Rooney. He’s a very selfish player and as said in the article, he can’t be played as a straight wide man because he doesn’t bother defending.
On the plus side, he’s young, raw and will have a go. Whether that transpires into him developing into a good pro is anybody’s guess.
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I consider myself a balanced and unbiased Gills fan and would go along with Simon’s piece – it’s a very accurate assessment of Rooney. He can be a game-changer and was one of the few players we had who would take people on or have a shot from distance (two impressive aspects of his game). However more often he’s incredibly frustrating – trying to do it all himself when teammates are better placed, wandering out of position and rarely tracking back to support the full-back. I’ve always considered his best position as impact sub! The contrast in his performances when starting matches and coming on as a sub were stark, although he did appear to have improved as a starter this season (your win in October being comfortably his best 90 minute game ever for us).
It is certainly a gamble – his technique is good enough to potentially progess to playing at a higer level with the right coaching, yet he really could also flop badly as, with poor decision-making, selfishness and lack of positional discipline, all the skill in the world counts for nothing. He essentially still plays like an over-enthusiastic youngster; both the good – constant movement, fearlessness (he’s very calmly taken a couple of late crucial penalties this season), …but also the bad (doing too much, declining to pass to players in good positions, the stupidity of both red cards this season which were a result of getting carried away). That was fine when he was 17, 18, even 19 but he’s now been seen as a rough diamond for about 5 seasons. Maybe a change of management will be the catalyst for him to realise that potential.
There’s no bitterness whatsoever from me although yes, like all clubs, we have a collection of plums spouting all the ‘Judas’ guff. Most Gills fans are genuinely fairly indifferent about his leaving. I think it’s totally different to Charlie Austin – for one thing Austin was playing, scoring and arguably the focal point of your team at the time. Remember than Rooney was dropped as soon as he refused to sign a new deal in November, and since being brought back into the squad on Boxing Day hasn’t actually started a game. Our form during that time without him has been decent, so it’s generally being viewed as a) no great loss, and b) some money to spend on someone who does want to be at the club. Rooney has also refused to sign a contract before – about two years ago with just a handful of sub appearances and a couple of good goals behind him – so it’s long been accepted that he has a high opinion of himself. I realise there’s little loyalty amongst footballers, but he doesn’t even attempt to pretend it’s there. His self-confidence could be well-founded but he’s not proved it yet, and certainly hadn’t when he angled for a move to his beloved Millwall as a raw 18 year old, something which was never going to happen.
I do agree with Paul’s point about the psychological effect on Swindon. He’s the sort of player who’d thrive in a team doing well and with momentum. It’s a slight move up in that you’re in a financially better situation and Di Canio is managing to really prolong the honeymoon period, which in this league will get you promoted. I don’t think it will affect us unduly (except perhaps when you come to Priestfield when sod’s law says he’ll play a blinder). As I say, he wasn’t a key member of our team and other Gills players openly showed their frustration at his greediness and lack of team ethic on the pitch so it could benefit the togetherness…but there was always hope that Rooney would finally grow up and realise his potential. That never happened with us, and to be honest I don’t think ever would have done as he was always angling for a move out of League Two, despite never really proving he was one of the better players in it! I suspect if you somehow fail to go up, you’ll also be used as a stepping stone. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see him in the Championship in a few years, but equally I wouldn’t be surprised to see him drift into non-league obscurity if he doesn’t learn to channel his undoubted talent. It’ll be interesting to see which way his career goes from here.
Sorry for rabbitting on. Up the Gills!!
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Good post Sammy, Ive read a lot about Rooney and not seen him play yet but I’m sure I will soon. I have also read somewhere that Rooney and PDC had a very long chat when he was in talks with town prior to joining. Maybe PDC is the ideal Manager to extract the best out of Rooney? Maybe PDC sees a bit of Himself as a Youngster in Rooney? My opinion is that a slightly older, maybe A little bit more expeirenced player in the leagues above us, would have been A better option. Of course, price and wages considered. I hope I’m wrong, but after seeing the crazy situation regarding Leon Clarke, I can’t help but have my doubts about this one. Go on Rooney, Go on PDC prove me wrong again! U REDS!!
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Well unless Rooney is phenomenally stupid and / or illiterate, he will have taken note of what happened to Leon Clarke and more recently, the reaction of PDC to what he considered a poor performance at Bristol Rovers (when we didn’t even lose). He will also have noted that Wray and Di Canio aren’t afraid of admitting when they have made a mistake with a player and, in those circumstances, getting rid a bit sharpish.
If Rooney isn’t bright enough to have picked this up by himself, I’m pretty sure that Wray & Di Canio will make sure that he is fully aware of what is expected and what will happen if this is not delivered.
Whereas last season, as fans, we had every right not to trust those at the helm of the club, surely we can agree that, this season, things are very different.
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Sammy, great post.
I think if anyone can smooth off the diamond and unleash the potential of Rooney it is PDC and by that, I mean no disrespect to Hess.
I think the vast majority of Town fans will acknowledge that the Gills were by far the best team to play at the CG so by that virtue, I hope you bag promotion via the Play Offs, initially by knocking the Creepies out of the Semi’s and then Ox***d in a humiliating and very public final.
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