Heck, I totally agree with Gray.
Rating depends on the minds of individual people, and hence it is a relative thing. This is precisely because people give different weights to certain criteria in judging players ability. I, for one, look for creativeness, technical control, and vision in attacking midfielder, and judge striker based on off the ball movement and their goal records. That is why Beckam isnt too high on my books since he isnt naturally gifted in these apsects and rate Trezeguet higher than most people do in this board (Since Trez does score goals

). For the same reason, I think Inzaghi is overrated because only once in his career he scored more than 20goals, and while people talk about him as a goal getter, satistically he is more of a 13-17 guy.
Rooney is a bit more difficult case because a lot of things that should be consideration are his "potential". A concept IMO that can be very misleading and ambiguous. As Seven correctly said, Rooney is amazing teenager, and some of the things he can do at this age is simply unbelievable. Then again, how can we tell that Rooney is merely an early developer and reached his peak at early age? 10 years ago if anyone told me that Zizou, Figo, Rivaldo would have better career than Raul and Del Piero, I would have questioned their sanity.

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The same thing applies to English and Italian league. I still believe that Italian league is more suited than EPL in terms of getting results, but then again EPL is fast & Furious with goals flying in which made the league commercially viable and every entertaining. Serie A is more a "hard core" league IMO.

. Hence, different people will have different tastes, which in terms determines their preference. Nonetheless, one thing that is certain IMO is that the days of Serie A dominance is over, and Europe has become extremely competitive, which made it more enjoyable IMO. Furthermore, the financial strenght of EPL puts it in very good position to increase its competitiveness in comparison to rival league of La Liga and Serie A. However, unfortunately I also think the days of outspending is over (It worked in Milan-Berlusconi era) because the talent margin is thinning, and just as the competition has become more competitive, the quality of players is levelling off IMO. The trends in global-ness, and better training methods in other parts of the world will only re-inforce these trends. Hence, unfortunately for EPL, its financial strenght does not guarantee the Serie A esque dominance of 90s. The competition is now too big to be owned by one league, be it Serie A, La Liga and EPL.
