Adam Rooney, long since on the fringes of the Irish international team, has now moved himself to the fringes of English league football with a move from Aberdeen to Salford City.
The move has caused consternation, and it has two prongs. The first is critical of Salford's financial weight, with Gary Neville wading into a Twitter dispute with Accrington Stanley owner Andy Holt. When accused of "stealing" the league, Neville responded by tweeting "Steal! I hope it’s yours now!5 ex players have matched all investment with our co-owner to build a stadium , build a successful team in a city we love and invest in football. We’ve invested millions . You seem to want a franchise league where the established can’t be challenged!" adding that "We've [the Class of '92] always been humble" in Salford's rise through the divisions.
Others have directed their ire to Scottish football, taking this as proof of a failing league. Chris Sutton labelled an article in The Telegraph propounding this view as "bollocks":
Player leaves club for club who offer more wages.... so Scottish football is in decline... this is utter b****cks putting it politely...
Sutton has since expanded on this view on BBC 5 Live, calling such criticism "Ill-informed, disrespectful and lazy and out of order".
I don't know what the issue is. He wasn't a regular last season, he wasn't first-choice. He played on the left-hand side; Derk McInness and Aberdeen didn't want him. He is 30 years of age and has gone for big wages to Salford. I'm reading things from down south saying that 'this is a new low for Scottish football; Scottish football is in decline.
What an absolute load of garbage. These are ill-informed, disrespectful and lazy individuals who do not follow the game up here. When Joey Barton failed at Rangers and went back down to Burnley, people in Scotland weren't disrespectful about English football.
Out of order.
