"Rooney Wants To Leave" - Ferguson
However, Sir Alex Ferguson has confirmed in his press conference this afternoon that Wayne Rooney requested to leave Manchester United back on the 14th August after refusing to enter in to negotiations regarding a new contact.
The full story from BBC Sport
Sir Alex Ferguson has revealed Wayne Rooney wants to quit Manchester United.
The Old Trafford boss admitted he was "shocked" and "disappointed" to hear the news but said he had not fallen out with the 24-year-old England striker.
"We are as bemused as anyone can be, we can't quite understand why he would want to leave," said the Scot.
Ferguson said the "door is still open" for Rooney, who will miss Wednesday's Champions League game with Bursaspor after being carried off in training.
The forward suffered minor ankle damage at the end of the session and will sit out the European tie at Old Trafford.
Rooney's future has been the subject of intense speculation over the last few days following reports that he was not prepared to sign a new contract.
His current deal is due to finish at the end of the 2011/12 campaign.
In an interview with MUTV filmed before he spoke to the media, Ferguson said United chief executive David Gill had told him about Rooney's decision not to sign a new contract back in the summer.
"I was in the office on 14 August and David phoned me to say he [Rooney] wasn't signing a contract," confirmed Ferguson.
"I was dumbfounded. Only months before he was saying he was at the greatest club in the world."
Having learned of Rooney's desire to go, Ferguson requested to speak to the player.
"Dealing with the next step was always going to be decisive for us, how we dealt with the situation," he said.
"I asked to have a meeting with the boy and he reiterated what his agent said, that he wanted to go.
"The one thing I said to him was 'respect this club, I don't want any nonsense from you'.
"I don't know if he has done that. I have doubts on that, we are reading all these things about falling out with me and all that nonsense.
"It's disappointing because we have done everything we possibly can to help Wayne Rooney ever since he came to the club.
"We have always been here as a harbour for him any time he has been in trouble, the advice we have given him. I was even prepared to give him financial advice.
"But it's not just Wayne Rooney, we have done that for all the players. Wayne has been the beneficiary of that, just as Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes have... so there has been no falling out.
"So there we are, we have got into a situation where we had to clarify this for our fans because what we saw on Saturday was unacceptable.
"When we got to 2-2 [against West Brom] and they were chanting Wayne Rooney, it's a pressure on the players and didn't do the team any good so we had to clarify the situation and put it right."
Rooney's decision has clearly had a big impact on Ferguson, who signed the player from Everton in August 2004. United paid the Toffees £25.6m for the 18-year-old, a world record fee for a player aged under 20.
"We've done nothing but help him since he's been at this club," said Ferguson, who has not given up hope of Rooney remaining at Old Trafford.
"I feel that we still have to keep the door open for him, especially as he's such a good player," stated Ferguson.
Rooney has been a key figure for United, helping them to win the Premier League in 2007, 2008 and 2009 as well as the coveted Champions League in 2008.
Ferguson appeared genuinely shocked during the press conference and doesn't seem to have an answer as to why Rooney wants to leave. Is it wages? Is it his fear that a debt-laden United lack the ability to compete in the transfer market? Has his head been turned by City's ambition?
This news combined with his drastic slump in form, his outburst at England fans in the summer, his drinking / smoking and allegations over his private life really have me fearing that we could be on the verge of a Gascoigne-like breakdown. Because of his similarities to Gazza I always felt Manchester United (with Fergie's guidance) was the best English club for him, so if he is going to leave then in my opinion he should leave the country, escape the tabloids and start afresh abroad as soon as he can.
Thoughts?
Cheers,
AM
p.s. I'm going to gamble that Yahoo have done all their point adjustments this week and start calculating the blog cup results tonight - keep checking back!
19 comments:
Its a pity, players holding clubs to ransome. High wages, can't say anymore..
i agree about the surprise element. for all the paper talk, i still thought there was an element of brinkmanship, with roon just wanting to play.
with 2 mth's still to the tfr window, it's weird to be officially made public now. booing at O.T. will create a bad vibe. maybe it partly explains utd's bad form in recent games. in fantasy terms, it might be worth holding berbs thru' his bad form & hernandez looks like he'll get more game time.
S.P.
It is not the worst thing happen in Old Trafford should Rooney leave in this near time, the worst is when Man U let go Carlos Tevez!!
Stam, Kanchelskis, Ince, van Nistelrooy, Beckham, Tevez, Ronaldo. All of them will tell you its down hill after you leave United.
Fergie has seen players like Rooney leave before and will see them leave again after the scouser is gone. In fact now that its public, I can't see Rooney playing for United again.
Possible destinations - Barca, Inter, Arsenal, pretty much any club with Nike as their kit manufacturer. Can't see them letting their marketing asset wear an Adidas strip every weekend, can you?
Could he play at Citeh? It would have to take a truck load of money but United are skint and have been a selling club ever since Glazer took over so if city can find £100 million then maybe.
Lol, Inter, Arsenal are 2 clubs furthest from "possibly signing" rooney, Arsenal dont have the funds and Rooney would never ditch to Rafa's Inter.
Real Madrid and Citeh, maybe Barca, hes gone in January though.
In these economic times, of club owners tighten their belts, things like this will hopefully come more often.
Liverpool first, ManU and Chelsea to follow with less outlay for players, who's existing ones are coming to, if not over 30, we only then need Man City owners to get bored, although Arsenal and Tottenham are a well run club.
From a neutral point of view this would make the premiership much more interesting and competitive for all teams. Plus the added bonus of the possibility of English players getting more game time, with less money around.
Inter is the most likely destination because they need a striker badly
and they have the funds
well Kalou is back
Inter is the most likely destination because they need a striker badly
and they have the funds
well Kalou is back
Inter is the most likely destination because they need a striker badly
and they have the funds
well Kalou is back
"Ronaldo..... will tell you its down hill after you leave United"
Awesome comment! Love Man U fans.
I don't think it's money, I don't think it's the slump, I think Rooney's just rolling through some tough times..... they happen, especially in that spotlight. Love you Rooney. Get back on the pitch... somewhere.
@Birty_ Ronaldo downhill after United?
09/10 - 26 goals, 7 assists, 94 sot
10/11 - 6 goals, 4 assists, 20 sot (in 7 matches)
doesn't look downhill to me
Tevez downhill after United?
Ferguson should be shocked
Tevez+Ronaldo+Rooney leave the Club and they are on top form !!!!
Now its up To Owen+Berbatov+Macheda+Bebe
Nice signing Ferguson :)
i don't think i would want to work for someone who keeps calling me "the boy".
ferguson just keeps disgruntling his best players and making his weakest players happy because there is always more roster spots open when world class players can't wait to haul ass out the door. anyone who thinks this is about money for rooney will be mistaken. he is a prideful BOY who doesn't want to be here. ronaldo asked for it first, then waited an extra year. inter is the only team in italy that doesn't need a striker. he would be the worse signing barcelona made, since ibrahimovic if he went there. he is not the player that would play well with that style. it would be nice if thierry henry, rafa marquez and beckham could talk rooney into playing for MLS. crew need a striker for schellotto to pass to.
He's still shocked 2 months after he said he wanted to leave?!
yeah, was some great acting by ferguson.. if he knew about it in august, why is he all of a sudden so sad and shocked and disappointed?
"Stam, Kanchelskis, Ince, van Nistelrooy, Beckham, Tevez, Ronaldo. All of them will tell you its down hill after you leave United."
not entirely true...certainly for stam,van nistelrooy,tevez,ronaldo.
There are only few players that had similar success with two or more clubs..but that doesnt mean all downhill!!!
Razesh
Notice that almost every instance mentioned by bloggers who are putting this at the feet of SAF includes a player whose issues were the result of ego, primarily Beckham, vanN, and Ronaldo (the exception, IMO, is Tevez, whose situation was handled poorly). SAF puts the squad and club before any one person and is loyal to those who are loyal to the MUFC.
but patrick any coach can make a player feel disloyal to the club if they want to. fergie will just push the right buttons. also, that quote that he puts the squad and club before anyone person is sacrosanct. most teams have that ethos. and most teams have players who are outside that ethos, but it is up to the coach how they deal with it. wenger sells adebayor to city and now adebayor is not good enough to start and is an issue in the dressing room. wenger did that with other players too. guardiola took a financial hit to dump eto. robinho keeps getting shipped off to a new team every year practically. mourinho dumps ibrahimovic onto barca, and doesn't object too much when balotelli leaves. my point is that it is not a rare thing for coaches to be loyal to those that are loyal to the club. you might just ask, why somebody who is loyal one day, decides they don't want to be anymore. i just think it is great that we are seeing the shine go off of manure. players don't want to sign, nor do they want to stay. liverpool and manu are going to be back seat to tottenham, chelski, arsenal and city. arsenal and tottenham are well run teams, with tottenham spending more than arsenal to buy players. city and chleski are obviously the teams representing the rich benefactor's advantage. the fact you can buy anyone you want and most people want to sign for them.
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