Rooney's century of England caps is a story of what might have been

Given that he only turned 29 last month, there is every chance he will go on to surpass Peter Shilton’s record of 125 England appearances, and given that already boasts 43 goals in an England shirt, it is equally likely that he will score the seven goals he needs to eclipse Sir Bobby Charlton as the nation’s all-time leading goalscorer.

By the time he retires, Rooney will tower above all his fellow England internationals in terms of longevity and goalscoring achievement. Yet unless something radical happens at either the next European Championships or the 2018 World Cup finals, he will leave the international scene with his nation’s supporters wondering what might have been.

A fine player? Undoubtedly. But a great one? Only for a brief 16-month period at the start of his international career. Since then, Rooney’s story has been one of consistent underachievement, although in fairness to the Liverpudlian, he is hardly alone in that.

Think of Rooney’s greatest moments in an England shirt, and you immediately find yourself drawn to his first 16 matches for his country. There was that dynamic first appearance in the controversial friendly with Australia that saw Sven-Goran Eriksson change his entire team at half-time. Then, two months later, there was the barnstorming senior debut at Sunderland’s Stadium of Light as Rooney ran the Turkish defence ragged during the draw that secured England’s place in Portugal at Euro 2004.

Ah, Euro 2004. The one tournament since 1996 when England appeared to have a genuine chance of winning something, and the fleetingly glorious fortnight that saw Rooney announce his arrival at the very highest level with a trio of scintillating performances against France, Switzerland and Croatia that brought four goals and led Eriksson to compare the teenager to a youthful Pele.

The following game, a quarter-final against Portugal, saw Rooney break a metatarsal in his foot in the opening half-hour. The injury effectively marked the end of England’s hopes of progressing to the semi-finals, and a decade down the line, still represents the moment at which Rooney’s international career began to head downhill from its highest point.

The last ten years have contained some notable moments and impressive performances, but there has been nothing to match the joyful abandon of Portugal , nothing to suggest Rooney was capable of making a significant impression in the matches that mattered most.

The oft-quoted statistic of one goal in 11 World Cup final appearances is a damning indictment of Rooney’s struggles at three successive tournaments, and the accusation that he is a flat-track bully is supported by the list of teams he has scored two goals in a game against since that final group game in 2004 – Kazakhstan, Belarus, Slovakia, Andorra, Bulgaria and San Marino. Hardly the powerhouses of the international game.

So what happened to that 18-year-old who appeared to have the world at his feet? Bad luck has unquestionably been part of the story, with the injuries that affected Rooney’s preparations for the 2006 World Cup in Germany and the 2010 tournament in South Africa having a major detrimental effect on his level of performance.

That said, plenty more of Rooney’s problems throughout his international career have been self-inflicted, whether because of a lack of discipline, as evidenced by the red cards against Portugal and Montenegro that had such serious consequences or the friendly in Spain in 2004 in which he had to be hauled off before he was sent off, or a lack of maturity, as highlighted by the televised rant as he left the pitch during a World Cup group game in South Africa which so infuriated the England support.

All of that would have been forgiven, however, had Rooney been delivering on the pitch, and in the eyes of this observer, the key factor in the striker’s failure to live up to his early promise has been the adaptations to his game that have led a succession of England managers to fret about where to play him.

Picture Rooney in 2004 and you conjure up a vision of a barnstorming centre-forward bristling with pace and aggression, charging past defenders and hammering home shots from every angle.

Assess the forward now, and you’re looking at a much more rounded player, adept at dropping off to link play or tracking an opponent into his own half from a wide position, but you won’t see anything like the same directness, selfishness or raw power. As a result, his goal threat has diminished considerably.

Perhaps that change was inevitable given that a player’s preferred style is always going to alter over the course of a decade? Maybe it’s the injuries taking their toll? It could also be argued that England have paid the price for Sir Alex Ferguson’s desire to mould Rooney into a more versatile attacking asset for Manchester United.

Either way, Eriksson, Steve McClaren, Fabio Capello and now Roy Hodgson have all found themselves with a player without an obvious role. Is Rooney best as an out-and-out striker with wide players either side of him, or does his desire to roam around mean he leaves a gap at the head of the attack if he is asked to play in that position? Is he better as a ‘number ten’, or does that dilute his goalscoring impact and take him parts of the field where he is not going to hurt the opposition? As of yet, no one has come up with a compelling answer.

In Rooney’s defence, some caveats are required. The current England team is markedly inferior to the one that played in 2004, so perhaps it is unrealistic to have expected anyone to hold their form during a period of gradual decline.

Given the traumas of the last decade, there have been a number of occasions where it would have been easy for Rooney to walk away from the international environment. Others have, but like his fellow centurions, David Beckham and Steven Gerrard, the current England skipper has displayed an unwavering commitment to the national cause. For that alone, he deserves a huge amount of credit.

As England head towards France in two years time and their third European Championships since 2004, Rooney remains their most important player. That says much about his enduring qualities, but delivers a much less positive verdict on the extent to which England have progressed over the last ten years.