Wayne’s world
LONDON. — Wayne Rooney felt the full force of Sir Alex Ferguson’s hairdryer more than once in his 13 years at Manchester United.
Yet he still rates the Scot as the best manager he has ever played under.
Not that Fergie’s place at the top of the pile was ever likely to be threatened by Fabio Capello — especially after the Italian’s antics at the 2010 World Cup.
In a wide-ranging interview on talkSPORT yesterday, Rooney goes in-depth about his managers, including the time Capello forgot all about his £6million-a-year deal with England – and celebrated wildly with his backroom team when his homeland scored during the finals.
Rooney (31) maintains Capello simply was not right for the Three Lions.
He revealed: “Obviously, his English wasn’t great and he brought his backroom staff in who were all Italian.
“I remember the World Cup in South Africa and Fabio and his coaches were watching Italy play and they were jumping up and cheering when Italy scored.
“He’s there as England manager! I didn’t think it was right.”
Rooney’s 53 goals and 119 caps puts him top of the Three Lions goals list and behind only Peter Shilton in alltime appearances.
The former Three Lions skipper played under a mixed bag of six national bosses. He enjoyed life under Roy Hodgson and Sven-Goran Eriksson, and learned from the Swede’s mistakes.
Rooney said: “Sven was really good for the team — more so for the starting XI as he tended to play the same line-up. I know for some of the lads on the bench it was difficult for them as they were never really playing.”
But Rooney believes Eriksson never managed to get the best out of the one player Roo reckons could have made a massive difference for England — his former Manchester United team-mate Paul Scholes.
He said: “Scholesy is probably the best I’ve played with.
“Scholesey could put his boots on now and still play, I’m sure. He had game management — he had a mind that would let him play anywhere.
“He was that good. If we had used him a bit more, in his right position, he would have certainly influenced a lot more games for us.”
One manager who did get the best out of Scholes was the incomparable Ferguson and Rooney winces at memories of his infamous dressing-room rants.
Reputations cut no ice with Fergie in the Old Trafford dressing room.
Roo became United’s greatest goalscorer and Ryan Giggs arguably the club’s greatest player. But they still copped an earful.
Rooney revealed: “That happened with me and Giggsy more than anyone.
“We were the players he had a go at most. But he knew when he had a go at us two, the characters we were meant we would go out and improve.” — talkSPORT