04 November 2023 , 08:30
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Wayne Rooney is Manchester United’s record goal scorer and one of the club’s most decorated ever players – but it was not all plain sailing across his Old Trafford career.
The former England international star captained United in the closing seasons of his career and played under David Moyes, Louis van Gaal and Jose Mourinho after his lengthy stint starring under the long-serving Sir Alex Ferguson.
Yet the relationship between Rooney and Ferguson became frayed on more than one occasion. The most obvious incident occurred back in late 2010, a year after the exits of Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez – and an apparent diminishment of quality in United’s squad.
Rooney put in a transfer request to leave Old Trafford in October 2010 when the former Everton player pulled out of contract talks, saying he had not received "any of the assurances I was seeking about the future squad". Ferguson said at the time during a bombshell press conference that he was "dumbfounded" by Rooney's desire to leave but, 48 hours later, Rooney signed a new five-year deal.
Dimitar Berbatov was Rooney’s attacking teammate at that time and recalled the incident in 2021, stating how he tried to empathise with Rooney: "There were a lot of questions about why he wanted to go at the time and there was a lot of speculation, but in the dressing room you try to understand motives behind something like this and you don't ask about it.
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"You just try to put yourself in the player's situation and see things from their side. As a player, you can't pay too much attention to these things and get distracted by it because it can affect your own game and performance. Moments like this can bring tension to a team which is why you shouldn't focus too much on it, you can only hope that it gets resolved as quickly as possible for the good of the team."
In 2013, in the closing months of Ferguson’s Old Trafford tenure, he asked to leave the club again after a spell out of the team. "It's not just me who's had a fall-out with him," Rooney revealed in 2015 when still a United star. "I don't know what happened or why that came out that way. I went in to see him and just said if you're not going to play me it might be better if I moved on - then all of a sudden it's all over the press I put in a transfer request, which I never did."
Have Your Say! Where does Rooney rank in Man United’s best players in recent times? Tell us what you think here.
Rooney, pictured in 2010, had been angling to leave Old Trafford before making a U-turn (Getty Images)However, Rooney had no regrets about his decision to stay in 2010. Recalling the episode in August 2011: "I'm thankful I ended up staying and signing because I said at the time after I signed my new contract that I had made a mistake and I owed performances and goals to the fans for what happened. It's the best decision I've made in my football career."
Rooney added of Ferguson’s influence on his career: "He was the reason why I wanted to join Manchester United, to work with him. For him to be interested in me and want me to come and play under him, there was nowhere else I was going to go."