Wayne Rooney has claimed he and Roy Keane would be booted out of Manchester United if they were in today’s dressing room.
The club’s all time top scorer says the brutal honesty that drove Sir Alex Ferguson’s squads to glory would not be tolerated in the modern game. Rooney insists the culture at Old Trafford has changed so much that the fierce standards once demanded by players like him and Keane would now be seen as bullying.
Speaking to former team mate Rio Ferdinand on his podcast, Rooney did not mince his words. Asked if he and Keane could cope in Erik ten Hag’s dressing room, the 39 year old replied: “No. We’d get sacked.”
He explained that the kind of language and confrontations that were normal under Ferguson would be outlawed now. “Some of the stuff that was said in the dressing room, you just couldn’t say it today,” Rooney admitted. “Now you upset someone, you’re a bully, you get accused of bullying.”
Rooney believes players need tough conversations to reach the highest level but fears football has lost that edge. “What happened to speaking the truth and saying ‘what are you doing?’” he said. “If someone had a go at me, I’d make sure it didn’t happen again. It wakes you up. It brings you alive. You keep each other on your toes. It was a collective responsibility.”
Rooney spent 13 years at United, winning 16 trophies and captaining the side for three seasons. After Ferguson retired in 2013, he played under David Moyes, Louis van Gaal and José Mourinho before leaving in 2017 as the club’s dominance slipped away.
Since retiring in 2021, Rooney has managed Derby, Birmingham and now Plymouth. But even as a boss he admits he has struggled with the shift in dressing room culture. “I’ve walked out of dressing rooms as a manager because I’ll explode,” he revealed. “I’ve seen a player call someone out and another player says you can’t do that, that’s bullying. I just told them to get a shower and walked out. It’s mad. It’s society.”
He says modern managers and players have to weigh every word. “You don’t know what you can and can’t say. You have to be careful about what you say, how you say it, the tone of voice. But ultimately you just want to get the best out of that player.”
For Rooney, the no nonsense standards that delivered success at Old Trafford have disappeared. And he is certain that if he or Keane tried them now, the club would show them the door.
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