The Irish Mail on Sunday

Everton’s owner just didn’t want me

-

WAYNE ROONEY has revealed how his dream of helping boyhood club Everton win their first trophy for more than 20 years came to an end when it gradually became evident that owner Farhad Moshiri did not want to keep him.

Rooney left Manchester United for Everton in July 2017 and United helped to facilitate the deal by paying some of his wages. Rooney played well to begin with but offered to drop back into midfield to help the team and as the season progressed doubts grew about Moshiri’s intentions.

‘It wasn’t easy to leave United,’ Rooney says, ‘but I wasn’t playing and that was difficult and Everton was the main reason why I left. I wanted to help them move forward and win the first trophy since 1995. That was always a dream of mine. I was a bit disappoint­ed.

‘It wasn’t just about ending my career at Everton. I could see the club were trying to move forward and I wanted to be part of that.

‘I think it was the owner’s decision. I was made aware of interest from DC and an article in the newspaper about it and I started to think: “What’s going on here? Is there something being said?”

‘So I went in to see Sam Allardyce and said: “Listen I’m not a kid. What’s going on? Do you want me here or not?” To be fair to Sam he was probably the honest one. He said if he was still there next season I mightn’t play as much but he still wanted me to be here and be a big part of things. Then he said: “But I’m not sure the owner has the same opinion”.

‘Trying to get an honest answer out of the owner took three months. All I wanted was clarity. There were some positives: my four children seeing me play for Everton. Even though my youngest two won’t remember, we still have the pictures to look back on when they’re older of me at Goodison. But I was just left a bit sad.’

 ??  ??

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Ireland