A slender win and subdued display against the third-best team in last season’s Slovakian Fortuna Liga was not how Wayne Rooney envisaged his Everton homecoming but he did find some consolation in the outer reaches of the Europa League. One is that the homecoming is out of the way. “I’ve done it now and I can focus more on the football,” he said after the 1-0 defeat of Ruzomberok. Another is that it was a far cry from the last time he made an emotional return to Goodison Park 12 years ago.
Then, sporting Manchester United colours for the first time since his acrimonious £27m departure the previous summer, the 19-year-old was welcomed back by a police cordon on Goodison Road, a police helicopter overhead, vitriol throughout the FA Cup tie and a few objects thrown his way for good measure. He didn’t make it through the warm-up without coming in for abuse from an Everton match-day sponsor, biting back before being dragged away by some of the minders employed for the day. Time has healed Goodison’s wounds judging by the reception for his latest bow in royal blue. It will take sterner opposition and a game that does not form part of pre-season to reveal the impact of time on Rooney’s second Everton career. But, as a less temperamental and more decorated 31-year-old, England’s all-time leading goalscorer has already had a positive effect on the mood, the shirt sales and the wider interest in Everton since coming home from Old Trafford.
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