Manchester United star Wayne Rooney was on the verge of re-invention

Manchester United star Wayne Rooney was on the verge of re-invention as a holding midfielder last summer... now his career sits in no-man's land

Instead of playing for England this summer, he is enjoying a summer holiday with his family

It was a year ago today we awaited the last great re-invention of Wayne Rooney — the new holding midfielder against Russia on whose mood, touch and form England’s 2016 European Championship campaign depended.

He would be the axis around which the ‘young bucks’ and ‘gazelles’ of England would operate, the manager Roy Hodgson declared at the time, oozing admiration for a pre-tournament pep talk the player had given.

The crash which followed for Rooney has been steeper and more spectacular than that of any Englishman of his ilk.

It left him this weekend marooned on a beach on the Aegean island of Mykonos with his wife Coleen — deposed as England captain by Tottenham’s Harry Kane, estranged from the national side and stranded in a no-man’s land as the player no club side wants to buy.

Though it has been anticipated for some time that mid-June would be the moment when an announcement might come about his future, there have been no concrete offers for the 31-year-old. The prospect grows of Rooney watching from the sidelines during the last year of his £300,000-a-week contract, as Jose Mourinho’s new signings set about the job he had thought would be his.