Shameless angst of papers who promote gambling  I'm writing this
from experience. My name's Simon Jordan, I'm a millionaire, and
I use casinos  It's a lesson in spin. In the five months before
January, Wayne Rooney lost £700,000. In the same five months he
earned £1.5million after tax and hasn't gambled since. How to
splash that on a tabloid? 'Roo's £700,000 bets debt - England
camp's turmoil...' There are some big emotional problems here,
but they're not Wayne's. Two months before the World Cup,
another excruciatingly lame, limp-wristed slap at England by a
British paper, revealing nothing, motivated by circulation and
defended as 'public interest'. There's a 'secret dressing-room
gambling ring' panted the Sunday Mirror, then billed it 'world
exclusive'.  It's a seedy, nerdy sort of self-abuse. Alex
Ferguson's reaction was totally right, calling Rooney 'manna
from heaven' for the tabloids, another Best or Beckham to build
up, then pick at. It's a familiar pattern: a story based on
nothing, three months late