THE Rooney clan seem pretty hot at producing teenage prodigies. First there was Mickey, now Wayne, and while one was a Hollywood star for more than 50 years we wonder how the other will cope with instant fame.

Mickey had his first starring role at about the same age as Wayne, who was 17 yesterday, five days after his 30-yard shot ended Arsenal's 31-game unbeaten League run.

Wayne was expected to sign a contract yesterday which would earn him £10,000 a week, but the deal was delayed because of a change of agent.

Yes, barely out of nappies and he's already on his second agent, who says: "We have the best interests of the boy at heart."

That can be loosely translated as: "We are going to milk this unsuspecting young whipper-snapper for every penny we can make out of him."

That's not to say that by the time he's 20 Wayne won't have acquired riches beyond the wildest dreams of someone who lives in a Croxteth council house with his mum, dad and two brothers, who are all Everton season ticket holders. But British sport is littered with hugely promising teenagers who fall by the wayside for a variety of reasons, with fame and fortune high on the list of pitfalls for footballers.

Rooney is the youngest player to score a goal in the Premiership, but Jason Dozzell scored for Ipswich against Coventry in the old First Division aged 16 years and 57 days. He went on to have a reasonable career, but hardly set the world alight.

Fortunately, Rooney seems to have a boss in David Moyes who is determined to protect him and Moyes has the reassurance of knowing that the Rooneys are Everton daft. But he still has to pay the lad £10,000 a week to stop the fat cats moving in for him.

IT doesn't have to be money which derails young British sports stars, as shown by our inability to develop tennis players.

In the national championships currently being played at Bolton, Arvind Palmer, a member of our Davis Cup team and ranked 195th in the world, lost in the first round.

He was beaten by Jonathan Murray, ranked 692 places below him.

Britain's No 3, Martin Lee, has a world ranking of 166, despite being No 3 among the world's juniors seven years ago. When pitched into a Davis Cup singles against Thailand recently, he froze, losing the first set 6-0 in 15 minutes.

If neither Tim Henman nor Greg Rusedski is fit to play against Australia in February we might as well scratch to avoid the embarrassment.

TALKING of which, there will be a few red faces if Durham's Stephen Harmison is thrust into the Ashes series and bowls as he did in Tuesday's opening match of the tour.

Given the stringency of one-day rules, it comes as no great surprise that he should bowl a few wides, but 16 in seven overs suggests that my worst fears for him might be realised.

There are mitigating circumstances, however, if he had been concussed in the field, as was reported.

Rugby players suffering concussion are not allowed to play for three weeks, so for Harmison to go out and bowl half an hour later seems rather ill-advised.

IT was always a bit of a mystery why George Reynolds wanted Tommy Taylor to manage Darlington in the first place. Taking Leyton Orient to the play-off final seemed to be about the limit of his achievements, and it was something he clearly wasn't going to repeat at Feethams.

Taylor's own comments about Reynolds towards the end of last season suggested he didn't expect to be around much longer. "What players are going to want to come here, knowing what the chairman's like?" he asked.

Reynolds has to get it right this time because on the strength of recent performances his team will have easily the best stadium in the Conference next season.

If he had moved a bit quicker he need not have changed the name on the manager's door.

But no sooner had I expressed surprise that Peter Taylor was not even mentioned in connection with the Sunderland job than he took over at Hull.

SO there is a Harrison on these shores who can box a bit, after all. While Audley has yet to convince his own mum that he can punch his way out of a paper bag, the much less heralded Scott Harrison has become the WBO featherweight champion.

He beat Argentinian hard man Julio Pablo Chacon, who Naseem Hamed had studiously avoided, in his home city of Glasgow and promoter Frank Warren immediately elevated him on to a pedestal alongside Ken Buchanan and Jim Watt. Scott has made the top at 25 in a style that reminds us why boxing became known as the noble art, while Audley is floundering around at 30, helping to turn the heavyweight division into an ignoble farce.

Published:25/10/2002