“Three goals, three points and one step closer to qualifying”, Wayne Rooney observed on Tuesday night, reflecting on a rather easy 3-0 home win over Copenhagen in the Champions League.

To be fair, the Danes put up a decent fight for most of the first half, until the indomitable Paul Scholes scored after 38 minutes. From there on, the only question was whether United would better our last result against a Danish team in the Champions League – beating Brondby 6-2 and 5-0 on our way to winning the Treble in 1998-99.

In the event, further goals from John O’Shea and Kieran Richardson in the second half was all we got - but there could have been many more.
Despite his fine start to the season, Louis Saha still can’t hit a barn door when one-on-one with the goalkeeper. He should have had a hat-trick against Copenhagen, having enjoyed the fruits of Rooney’s unselfishness.

On several occasions, Rooney, who is desperate for a goal himself after nine barren games for club and country, passed to Saha when he felt the Frenchman had a better chance to score. This underlined an emerging feature of the Boy Wonder’s game – a growing willingness to play not only for himself, but for his teammates, for the greater good of the team and of the club.

In America, it was always said of a certain Michael Jordan that even though he was outrageously talented, he didn’t become a great player until he gave up the theatrics of his youth in order to sacrifice himself for the team. When that sense of responsibility and maturity clicks for Rooney, I feel United are in for a ride.

In young Wayne we have not only one of the world’s best players, but perhaps also our team’s leader, our talisman of the future. Seven days short of his 21st birthday, Rooney was selected by Ferguson to skipper the Reds in the absence of Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs. Most United fans see him as a future captain, but none of us expected him to move up the pecking order so quickly. Except Rooney himself, perhaps. He has an almost other-wordly assuredness about him – a certain cockiness that marks him out from even the most accomplished of players.

Sir Alex Ferguson has already taken notice of this fact. Never has he put so much faith into the hands of one so young. Steve Bruce, Eric Cantona and Roy Keane all became United captains in their late 20s, or, as in the case of present captain Neville, early 30s. When Gary retires, Wayne will still be in his early 20s – and, as Ferguson seems to believe, ready to lead our beloved Reds to even greater heights.

Rooney has been criticised by just about everyone associated with football over the past months for his lack of form, but he has simply gone about his business – even staying late to work on his game after the rest of the squad went home from practice. This belies an important facet of his game – a steely determination more reminiscent of a street boxer than a multi-millionaire modern footballer. Wayne hasn’t let any of the background noise affect him; he knew he’d eventually come good and that soon enough he’d be back to his best.

And now that he is (he was man of the match both against Wigan last weekend and against Copenhagen on Tuesday), it’s as if United have a renewed spring in their step, a belief they’ll win every game. The old swagger of the late 90s and early noughties is back. Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Neville are all playing as if they were five or six years younger, as if enjoying a second summer after a long, exhausting winter.

The newer additions – Ronaldo, Alan Smith, Gabriel Heinze, Nemanja Vidic, Rio Ferdinand et al – are playing with an unprecedented purpose and drive. Led by young Wayne, there is every chance that United will be there or thereabouts when the time to collect this season's silverware arrives.

So while Neville is our captain, it is young Rooney who is now our de facto leader on the pitch. It is he the players look to for inspiration, he that Sir Alex looks to for intervention, and he that the fans look to for salvation.

Captain future? Captain now.