The decline of Wayne Rooney as a footballing force isn’t confined to this season; his form has been in freefall for at least three years now. While he may be England’s all-time leading scorer, and just three shy of holding the same record for Manchester United, Wayne Rooney is a shadow of the manchild who arrived at Old Trafford back in 2004. 

Potential is defined as the latent qualities or abilities that may be developed and lead to future success or usefulness. 

Kevin De Bruyne is the cover boy of Potential Illustrated, the long-running theoretical magazine that is littered with pages of soccer players that just didn’t make it. 

There are millions of both aimless and worthwhile reasons for why some players just never figure it out. Talent, oddly enough, usually goes hand in hand with prospective failure. 

You are probably familiar with fantasy sports — the competitive, addicting online gaming experience that allows sport fans to interact with other fanatics. A quick synopsis: participants gather and select individual professional players; they then assemble these players to their virtual team, living out their fantasy as head coach of a team of superstars.

Sportsmail, the online sports section of the British tabloid newspaper Daily Mail, has revealed another ‘hippy crack’ storm surrounding Aston Villa and England youth international Jack Grealish. Our feelings concerning this issue can be nicely summarized by this Villa supporters poll:

For Manchester United’s 659 million fans, it’s a chance to dream. They’re just one step away from an appearance in the English Football League Cup quarterfinals. It’ll take another performance like the spirited one that saw off the mighty Cobblers of Northampton Town, but things are looking up following a week that consisted of one fresh hell after another.

One of the most fun things about the EFL Cup is when big clubs get upended by Championship and lower-level clubs, like Everton going down to Norwich City earlier today. Watching giants get humbled by minnows is a delight to everyone not a fan of that particular giant, and it's of particular amusement to fans of giants that made it through to the next round.

Apparently, after twelve seasons with the Red Devils, the bell has finally rung for Wayne Rooney.

Every once in a while, we can still catch glimpses of the old Rooney, making a difference in critical moments of a close game for United. And yet, despite those few moments of genius, Rooney is plain and simply playing badly. 

His start of the Premier League season was a flash of hope for United supporters as he scored in the opening game against Bournemouth and dished assists on the two subsequent outings. 

Leicester City players are not your typical footballers. Their game is different, and in many respects, very simplistic. Yet, it’s just that simplistic style that may have given them an edge over other teams – and qualified them for the Champions League.

Week five of the English Premier League is now behind us, and the ‘club in crisis’ tag can already be firmly affixed to Manchester United. After starting the season with three successive victories, things have quickly come undone over a brief period of eight days for Jose Mourinho and his charges.