Lets try a little logic, top of the league, most goals scored in a season, dominate possession more than most(maybe not as much as Utd of old), more chances being created, more chances they have to pass in behind, more chances to get called offside.... and thus the main striker at the club is also called offside more than other strikers at other clubs that don't get to attack as much... shock horror.
also lets be completely clear, offsides take TWO people, someone being offside and someone passing to someone who is offside, every single time I see someone blame the striker alone for every offside... I assume that person is a bit stupid.
90% of a strikers life is making runs in behind, probably 60-70% of all offsides are down to the simple fact that a pass a split second earlier would have that player onside, thats not to say all offsides are the passers fault, frequently a striker runs too early before the player would have the chance to pass and lets not forget that offsides aren't all offside, until linesmen have a 100% accurate offside detection RVP could easily have been called offside for 20 that weren't, or got away with 20 that weren't, same goes for every other striker in the league.
Ultimately what you've probably managed to work out is that teams further up the league get more offsides, and somehow think this is great detective work.
As for shirt sales, how many shirts will Rooney's name sell if he's playing half the season, playing less well, and generally not the main player at the club?
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/wayne-rooney-loses-place-top-1750895
oh look, first story I find is that Rooney has slipped behind RVP and Gerrard.... and oh wait, who cares anyway, the truth is somewhere between Baz's "shirt sales make no difference at all because the contracts are already done", and "every shirt sale is money therefore Rooney is worth keeping" from Nick.
The simple fact is, contracts do matter, if you've got 10 Galactico type guys, you'll be able to negotiate better sponsorship deals, and there will almost certainly be clauses in contract for sales targets, sell 10mil get this much, sell 2mil extra, get a bonus.
But Rooney ISN'T the highest selling shirt name, and that number will dwindle as he gets older/worse AND you're assuming the difference is massive. If 500k people buy a Rooney shirt, they sell him and get Ronaldo and 470k people buy his name on a shirt... whats the real difference in income? is it worth refusing to sell a player for 25mil today, and lose him for nothing in two years, absolutely not, not even close, the numbers will be minimal at best. RVP had his name on 25% of shirts sold this year, Rooney, 6%. Rooney had high shirt sales numbers before simply because he was the biggest player at the club, nothing more, nothing less, sell Rooney AND RVP and buy any top striker, say Cavani, he would have easily the highest sales numbers, thats how it works. Its also as simple as, not every fan buys a shirt every year, a few people replace shirts or buy a new version with their favourite player, but most people say buy a shirt every few seasons, get the name of the biggest player (often biggest buy) that season. 25% of shirt sales were RVP because no one yet had an RVP/Man U shirt, next year a huge number of people will already have a RVP/Man U shirt and his sales will as such plummet.
So shirt sales/media, no, will his value ever be higher than it is today before he retires, no(the same argument about selling Rooney at say age 24 wouldn't be the same, he could easily have been worth more at that stage, but at current age, no very very unlikely), and he's currently costing the club over 10mil a year to keep due to wages. Selling today would likely be £50mil better off than letting him walk out in 2 years, shirt sales won't make even a noticeable dent in that.
Of course you'd buy a replacement and give that person most likely big wages, but you'd also have a excellent chance of spending that on a better player for the team.
