Ferguson, Alex - Alex Ferguson My Autobiography

When these sorts of allegations surfaced the first time, he was 17 years old, and allowances were made for his youth, but this time we were seven years on. Coleen, his wife, had her head screwed on. She always struck me as a stabilising force.

I certainly felt under pressure in relation to him during that World Cup in South Africa. I knew there was something bugging him at the 2010 World Cup. I could see it. Although he had been named PFA Player of the Year and Football Writers’ Association Footballer of the Year that season he was in a strange mood in South Africa. ‘Nice to see your home fans boo you,’ he said into a TV camera after England’s goalless draw with Algeria in Cape Town. England went out in the second round and there were no goals in four matches for Wayne.

I needed to get his attention. Yet the best way to achieve that was by not saying anything to him – not offering consolation – to force him to think. When I left him out away to Everton in September, to protect him from abuse by the crowd, he was relieved, because he knew I was doing the right thing by him. Your job is to make an impact on each personality with the best possible output in terms of performance.

We can all moralise but everyone will commit indiscretions. I was never going to moralise with Rooney. On 14 August 2010 Wayne informed us that he would not be signing a new contract at United. This was a shock, as the plan had always been to sit down after the World Cup to discuss a new contract.

As the drama gathered pace, David Gill called me to say that Wayne’s agent, Paul Stretford, had been to see him to say that Wayne wanted away. The phrase he had used was that he didn’t think the club were ambitious enough. We had won the League Cup and the League the year before and reached the final of the Champions League.

David said that Wayne would be coming to see me. At that meeting, which was in October, he was hugely sheepish. I felt he’d been programmed in what he was trying to say. The basis of his complaint was that we were not sufficiently ambitious.

My response was to ask Wayne: ‘When have we not challenged for the League in the last 20 years? How many European finals have we been to in the last three or four years?’

I told him that to say we weren’t ambitious was nonsense.

Wayne said that we should have pursued Mesut Özil, who had joined Real Madrid from Werder Bremen. My reply was that it was none of his business who we should have gone for. I told him it was his job to play and perform. My job was to pick the correct teams. And so far I had been getting it right.

We had a European tie the following day. Two hours before we played Bursaspor, on 20 October, Wayne issued the following statement: ‘I met with David Gill last week and he did not give me any of the assurances I was seeking about the future squad. I then told him that I would not be signing a new contract. I was interested to hear what Sir Alex had to say yesterday and surprised by some of it.

‘It is absolutely true, as he said, that my agent and I have had a number of meetings with the club about a new contract. During those meetings in August I asked for assurances about the continued ability of the club to attract the top players in the world.

‘I have never had anything but complete respect for MUFC. How could I not have done, given its fantastic history and especially the last six years in which I have been lucky to play a part?

‘For me its all about winning trophies – as the club has always done under Sir Alex. Because of that I think the questions I was asking were justified.

‘Despite recent difficulties, I know I will always owe Sir Alex Ferguson a huge debt. He is a great manager and mentor who has helped and supported me from the day he signed me from Everton when I was only 18.

‘For Manchester United’s sake I wish he could go on forever because he’s a one-off and a genius.’

I wasn’t sure what he meant by this statement but I assumed he was trying to build some bridges with me and the fans. I hoped it meant he’d changed his mind and was happy to stay with us.

The press conference after that game, when all the media were there, gave me an opportunity to say what I wanted to say, which was that Wayne was out of order.

I told the press: ‘As I said, three Premier League titles in a row is fantastic and we were within one point off a record fourth. It didn’t happen for us and we didn’t like that and we want to do something about it. We’ll be OK – I’ve got every confidence in that. We have a structure at the club which is good, we have the right staff, the right manager, the right chief executive, he’s a brilliant man. There’s nothing wrong with Manchester United, not a thing wrong with it. So we’ll carry on.’

And I said on television: ‘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 had a problem, we’ve given advice. But you do that for all 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 Busby. 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.’

In a conference call with the Glazers, the future ambitions of the club were discussed and Wayne was made one of the highest-paid players in the country, I would imagine. The next day he came in to apologise. I told him: ‘It’s the fans you should be apologising to.’

There was a mixed reaction from the players. Some were put out; others were not bothered by him. It was a sorry episode for Wayne because it portrayed him as a money man who had dropped his grievance the minute his salary was raised. That’s the way it was presented, but I don’t think it was Wayne’s intention to make it a financial issue. It blew over quickly. With the fans, however, there was a residue of mistrust.

He was fine so long as he was scoring, but in fallow times there was perhaps a stirring of the old resentment. Players can underestimate the depth of feeling for a club among fans. In the most extreme cases it leads supporters to think they own the club. Some of them have stood behind the club for 50 years. They’re there for life. So when a player is deemed to have shown disloyalty to a club, there is no messing about with them.

Very few players want away from Manchester United. We had a generation of players who had pledged their whole careers to our club – Giggs, Scholes, and so on – and it was alien to our supporters to see a player agitating for a move or to hear him criticising transfer policy.

In the winter of 2011, I did have to take disciplinary action after Wayne, Jonny Evans and Darron Gibson had a night out. They went across to Southport to a hotel to celebrate our 5–0 Boxing Day win against Wigan. They came into training the next day weary. I went into the gymnasium where they were doing their exercises and told them they would be fined a week’s wages and not considered for selection against Blackburn on the Saturday.

Wayne needed to be careful. He has great qualities about him but they could be swallowed up by a lack of fitness. Look at the way Ronaldo or Giggs looked after themselves. Wayne needed to grasp the nettle. It was not wise for England to give him a week’s holiday before Euro 2012 because he might lose his edge. If he missed a couple of weeks for United, it could take him four or five games to get his sharpness back. The Ukraine game was over a month after his last game for us.