Rooney in 2010 wanting to leave

[NinjaZombie]

Rooney was in the wrong, and revisionist history is daft. He tried to leave for more money. In 2011, we made it to the Champions League final and won the league. We were unbeaten until February. He was a senior member of the squad. If he had resevations about the future of the side, he had the power to talk to the board and the manager about it, and make a decision at the end of the season. Putting in a transfer request and blindsiding the manager and the club and the fans was unprofessional, and very typical of the type of character he is.

Spot on. If you think Rooney was concerned about the mere prospect of the club falling behind even with Fergie in charge and us having won the league that season, why didn't he ask to leave as things were falling apart post Fergie? Becaus he already had his bumper contract, that's why.

People talking like he was some soothsayer who was warning us about the state of the club are deluded. Wayne Rooney never cared about the club more than he did for himself and his contract.

The fact that he changed his mind just a week later after getting a lucrative new contract shows what his real reasons that was about.

This.

Rooney held the club to ransom and from there the player power crept in and spread to what it is today.

"My captain always plays", even out of position in centre midfield where he was out of his depth. Mourinho, for all his faults, recognised right away that Rooney needed getting rid off.

Ah yes, that mad week... I'm pretty sure Sir Alex had marked Rooney's card after that and that he was doomed to be ejected from the club the moment his performance dropped.

Luckily for Rooney, Sir Alex retired and Moyes failed to follow through with the setting up of that move.

Rooney was already replaced by the time Moyes came in. Fergie signed Van Persie and Kagawa for that. Bloody Moyes sucked up to Rooney, allowed him to get a contract and then made a mess of things as manager.

 

[SAF-GIGGSY]

It was because SAF didn't go for ozil after the world cup and arsenal got him in SAF autobiography he said that

 

[Gary_Walsh_Nou_Camp_Hell]

Rooney was in the wrong, and revisionist history is daft. He tried to leave for more money. In 2011, we made it to the Champions League final and won the league. We were unbeaten until February. He was a senior member of the squad. If he had resevations about the future of the side, he had the power to talk to the board and the manager about it, and make a decision at the end of the season. Putting in a transfer request and blindsiding the manager and the club and the fans was unprofessional, and very typical of the type of character he is.

This.

He had the right to air hia views but he should have done it privately. He disrespected everyone at United with how he and hia agent handled that transfer request and hinting at a move to City. It was all about him screwing more money out of United.

 

[beergod]

He was in his hump. As a senior player he criticised his own teammates in public and he was such a moral crusader that it all got resolved when he was handed a massive new contract.

He deserved every criticism he got. The most telling part about all of it was his insistence that the club sign quality players and then he complained when they signed one who was better than him in his preferred position!

Making him captain of the club was a horrible decision.

Agreed. His quick U-turn once we paid him after that whole saga was the farcical.

Had the club not dropped the ball in 2013, extending his contract and then discarding him once maximum value was extracted from Rooney would've been SAF's final masterstroke.

 

[AshRK]

Our downfall started in summer of 2009. We had a top squad which could and should have dominated the world football but sir alex and our owners back then were not willing to spend big. No top club would lose two star players and not replace them. We lost Ronaldo and Tevez and replaced them with Valencia and Owen. That was unacceptable. We could have asked for robben and sneijder and real madrid would have given them even for free. We could have dominated the European football even after sir alex retired had we bought right players.

In hindsight Rooney was right but the way he conducted himself was wrong.

 

[JPRouve]

It was because SAF didn't go for ozil after the world cup and arsenal got him in SAF autobiography he said that

In 2010, Ozil joined Real Madrid.

 

[Moriarty]

People talking like he was some soothsayer who was warning us about the state of the club are deluded. Wayne Rooney never cared about the club more than he did for himself and his contract.

Rooney - The Scouse Nostradamus (Circa 2010)

In the great Northern city, a ruler shall retire
Three pretenders shall vie for power
The hordes shall stand behind the Norseman
But Eastern riches will conquer the day

The man of wood will waste riches
The greedy fall at his feet and give thanks
Bloody will be the field of conflict
When the hordes rise up in protest

 

[Ekeke]

He wanted more money. He got more money. If he hadn't held us over a barrel with his contract demands, we could have spent more money on better players around him

 

[Tomuś]

If Glazers had a little bit of foresight and understanding about football, we would have had a successful team for less than half what we spent after Fergie.

They've actually spunked a lot of money post-Fergie but our footballing people, or lack of, means we've wasted it on frauds.

 

[Tincanalley]

Fergie had his hands tied by Glazers. Not his fault he stopped signing superstars for mega money. Unless you believe he wouldn't have wanted them instead of Obertans.

This is the basic point. Simple as this

 

[harms]

We currently have two of the 10 most expensive players of all time in our team - no club has more than that

I genuinely struggled to remember the second one until I went through our squad in my head one by one. Lukaku is one of 10 most expensive players of all time

 

[Tincanalley]

Why do you think he was trying to deflect blame away from them or having a go at supporter groups criticising the glazers?

Roy Keane says he benefited financially from the Glazer takeover. Others who objected at the time suddenly went quiet. Go figure

 

[Tincanalley]

Personally think it was part that and a large part his own culpability in their ownership as a result of the rock of Gibraltar affair

Spot on

 

[Tincanalley]

I really despise this narrative that Rooney was a "mercenary" or that he is anything less than one of the very top legends of the game that Manchester United had to offer. The man was a literal slave to the club. Yet he is/was criticised constantly by the fans, and more often than not criticised with extreme double standards (in regards to other players) too. Few people in the club's history have invested as much time and effort as Wazza. Nor produced even half the results either. And for someone who won everything under the sun for us, I find the discontent and displeasure mostly unacceptable - it really unfortunately is one area that occasionally makes me believe our fanbase lives up to its "plastic" reputation.

I cannot fathom a captain/veteran of another top team being booted out so unjustly at the end of such an illustrious career the way that Rooney was. But people will arc up about his transfer request, or his wage increases, regardless of how much he gave to the club... and regardless of how many other players have acted out worse and escaped a similar scathing response from the fans. The Herrera comparisons in this thread are very apt! It really is a sad affair, as you can even still see how much the bloke adores United.

I struggle to think of even one outfield player who was as instrumental to the team and gave as much as Rooney for as long as Rooney did - bar Giggsy and Scholes.

There are perhaps no players that resemble Rooney's mould left - he really was the last of the old guard in my opinion. Hopefully give it a few more years, he'll be remembered more fondly (and fairly!). And more sorely missed season by season in hindsight, I'm sure.

Good post. Rooney was United through and through.

 

[Tincanalley]

Our downfall started in summer of 2009. We had a top squad which could and should have dominated the world football but sir alex and our owners back then were not willing to spend big. No top club would lose two star players and not replace them. We lost Ronaldo and Tevez and replaced them with Valencia and Owen. That was unacceptable. We could have asked for robben and sneijder and real madrid would have given them even for free. We could have dominated the European football even after sir alex retired had we bought right players.

In hindsight Rooney was right but the way he conducted himself was wrong.

Wrong. Our downfall began when the club was floated, and in earnest when the Glazers took over. Like one of those cartoons where Road Runner goes over a cliff, but keeps running, the fall took a while, but the events were in train

 

[Dante]

I have no problem with players wanting to earn as much as possible.

 

[Devil81]

Rooney was spot on, his profile was sky high at that point and the club was heading in the wrong direction.

He was a rat but he made his point and whatever we think of him it's hard to argue he was wrong.

 

[Brwned]

I genuinely struggled to remember the second one until I went through our squad in my head one by one. Lukaku is one of 10 most expensive players of all time

It is unbelievable! Ultimately we feel like we haven't spent big money because the players we bought haven't quite fit the profile. But then again, Coutinho, Dembele, Higuain and even Bale don't quite align with your perception of the most expensive players in history. Lukaku is the most out of place but mega money signings are rarely the spark for success. They play a role but it's a pretty small one generally. Our demise is driven primarily by the poor infrastructure not the lack of cherries on top.