Revelations: Fergie confirmed that Rooney has been
resisting signing a new deal since the summer
Ferguson on ... Rooney's desire to leave
“The player is adamant, he wants to leave. We have to deal with the
next part of that as best we can. I can do no more than what we’ve
said and done at the moment. We had a discussion and I said the
only thing I want from you Wayne is to honour and respect the
club’s position and its traditions and behave as a proper
professional. We cannot quite understand why he would want to
leave.
"No one can deny this club is one of the most successful in
British football. We had won 40 major trophies, countless cup
finals, a fantastic history, great stadium, great training
arrangements. The platform for anyone to take up a challenge is
here, without a doubt. We don't understand it. I can't answer any
questions about why he is doing it. We can speculate. We can have
opinions. It won't matter a dicky-bird, simply because the player
is adamant he wants to leave. I can do no more than I have said at
the moment because we still, to my mind, have the door open."
Rooney's injury, and his selection for
England
"Yes, he was injured. We sent him for a scan and while he was able
to train, he was still carrying traces of his injury. Why he was
saying he wasn’t injured, you can only guess yourself. It’s
disappointing. When it came to the Sunderland game, I felt I would
leave him out and give him a complete break so he could be fit for
England.
"I thought if he went and played for England, at Wembley, we
would get his form back. That was my intention,
that was my idea, to galvanise him. Take a break from the games,
get the training done, get his fitness back. Get rid of the traces
of the ankle injury away and play for England. So why he’s come out
and said that, I’ve no idea.
"His entry into the mixed zone at Wembley has created that next
stage that we have had to deal with, i.e. that he wasn't
injured. I was disappointed because we know he was carrying an
injury. We sent him for a scan, which showed a minor defect with an
ankle injury, nothing serious, but he needed treatment, which he
has had. There is no argument with that."
His relationship with Rooney
"We’ve never had any argument, not a bit. I think you have to
understand the mechanics of these situations when people want to
leave the club. It’s an easy one to say he’s fallen out with the
manager, a very easy one to say. I think there are traces of that
too."
Rooney's contract negotiations
"David Gill [United's chairman] in the early part of the summer,
had opened talks with his agent. And that was to be continued after
the World Cup. I was in the office on August 14 when David told me
he’d had a call from his agent saying that Wayne wasn’t going to
sign his contract. So then David came across to see me. He said he
couldn’t believe it and neither could I. I was dumbfounded, I
couldn’t understand it at all because only months before he’d said
he was at the biggest club in the world and he wanted to stay for
life. We just don’t know what’s changed the boy’s mind. David was
shocked, I was shocked.
"I had a meeting with the boy and he reiterated what his agent
had said. He wanted to go. I said to him, ‘Just remember one thing:
respect this club.’ I don’t want any nonsense from you, respect
your club. What we’re seeing now in the media is disappointing
because we’ve done everything we can for Wayne Rooney, since the
minute he’s come to the club. We’ve always been there as a harbour
for him.
"Any time he’s been in trouble, the advice we’ve given him –
I’ve even been prepared to give him financial advice, many times.
But you do that for your players, not just Wayne Rooney. That’s
Manchester United. This is a club which bases all its history and
its tradition on the loyalty and trust between managers and players
and the club. That goes back to the days of Sir Matt. That’s what
it’s founded on. Wayne’s been a beneficiary of this help, just as
Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and all the players have been. That’s what
we’re there for.
"There’s been no falling out. That’s why we need to clarify the
situation now for our fans. Because what we saw on Saturday was
unacceptable. When we were at 2-2 and the fans were chanting for
Wayne Rooney, it put pressure on the players and it didn’t do any
good for the team. So we’ve got to clarify the situation and try to
do it right. There’s no [specific] offer on the table for Wayne [at
the moment] because they’re not prepared to listen to an offer. But
there’s always an offer there for Manchester United to negotiate
with a player.
His feelings towards Rooney now
"Yes, I’m disappointed, very disappointed, I can’t believe it. When
you manage Manchester United, there is always something you have to
deal with. We’ve had to deal with these situations over the years.
There is a disappointment a lot of the time when you have to deal
with modern-day players. It’s not as easy as it was many, many
years ago when you were negotiating a contract because then the
player had to depend and trust on the manager he worked for. And as
a manager, you had more contact with the parents then as well.
"Yesterday I said to Edwin who made that mistake on Saturday,
‘Well, how are you feeling?’ He said the first phone call he’d
received was from his father. I said, ‘Well listen to him, he’s the
one you should listen to.’ But that’s gone now. We’re dealing with
agents who live in the pockets of players. We live in a different
world now and we have to deal with it in a different way. It’s a
pity but it’s there and we have to deal with it."
His message to Manchester United fans
"The message is that they have to trust Manchester United. If you
look at the history of our club over the last 50 years, at the
amount of trophies we’ve won, the honour we’ve received, the
recognition we’ve got, the respect we’ve got from around the world,
the admiration we’ve had from everywhere.
"We’ve produced more players than any other club in the country
for England. It’s a fantastic history and we should always remember
that. You have setbacks, we have some blips at times. Last year for
instance, we could have created history by winning the league for
the fourth time in a row. It had never been done. We lost it by a
point.
"That doesn’t tell us this team is falling apart or anything
like that. What it always represents is the next step forward. How
do we challenge? That’s Manchester United. You can’t continually
win everything every year. But when you have the little blips, we
have the structure, we have the management staff to deal with that
in order to get us back into line again. We have to deal with
Saturday’s disappointment and we have the wherewithal to deal with
that."
The future
"[David Gill] was prepared to offer him a contract that would be
difficult to match elsewhere. David’s prepared to offer the best
terms possible for any player in the country. We realise and
recognise the quality of the player, that’s why negotiations were
started early summer, two years before his contract was up, to
extend that contract. And also extend at the behest of the player
itself.
"He said he wanted to stay for life. We were honouring that
request from Wayne to stay at the club, at the club he loved. He
said the best thing he’d ever done was to sign for Manchester
United. So David was prepared, with the discussions with our
owners, to offer Wayne the best contract that anyone could have in
the country.
"We have to keep the door open for him, simply because he is
such a good player. We have done nothing but help him since he came
to the club. That is another mystery. I don't know how many times
we have helped him in terms of his private life and other matters.
He is not the only one who gets that privilege because Manchester
United is that type of club. We do that for all players, it doesn't
matter who it is. It is part of your job here. You look after your
players. That creates a tremendous loyalty. It has always been a
good foundation of our club."
