Did leaked picture of Rooney at Finch Farm prompt announcement?

Once we saw Wayne Rooney at Finch Farm yesterday it felt like an announcement would be forthcoming within minutes. However Everton stretched it out one more day and released the official tweets early this afternoon saying that the player had made his much heralded return to the Toffees.

However, minutes before the official announcement, it seemed like a picture of Rooney in the Finch Farm press conference area was leaked by one of the Everton Facebook groups, with various people retweeting it on Twitter following that.

Barely minutes later came the Everton announcement.

Well, well. A look at the timestamps on the two tweets tells you everything you need to know there.

Anyway, Wayne Rooney is back at his childhood club, where he scored 17 goals in 77 games before leaving for Manchester United in 2004. He went on to become part of United and England lore, and despite multiple links of coming back home over the years, it’s only now 13 years later with a new Everton emerging that he is back.