Wayne Rooney has revealed when he believes the Manchester United decline that’s continuing under Ruben Amorim started, and which two departures initiated it.
Rooney was appearing on the Rio Ferdinand Presents podcast and spoke to his former teammate about his transfer request in 2010 after asking “what’s the plan here” on the back of the club selling two of their best players.
And the United legend believes that’s was a point the club has never truly recovered from, despite them winning the Premier League title in 2012/2013.
Rooney told Ferdinand: “I think that question I asked then, in 2010, it still hasn’t been answered, been addressed, from 2010. And I think fans have seen… I don’t think, if fans look back, they’d be like, you know what, he actually seen what was coming a little bit. And I don’t think it’s been fixed since 2010.
“We obviously won the league in 2013, but lots changed, obviously. Commercially, social media, everything changed. But I still think when we lost Ronaldo and Tevez, from that moment, we got Robin in, obviously, for a couple years, but from that moment the club has never had a group of forwards like that.
“Look, before my time, with Teddy, with Solskjaer, Coley, Yorkie. Then you’ve got me, Ronaldo, Tevez, Berbatov, Saha. From that moment, the club has never had a group of forwards who can all play and come win you games. And that is Man United.
“But this group of four players, they’re going to come win you the game. And think back to 2010. They haven’t had a group of forwards where, like, if I’m playing, I’m not playing well, and you’ve got Berbatov on the bench, or Tevez at times on the bench, Saha— you’re like, “I need to play well now.”
“Now, There’s Højlund, Zirkzee, that’s it. Like, I feel for them, because in my opinion, they should be coming into games and winning games later on and having an impact off the bench. But they’re getting asked to play all the minutes and try and win games for the team, and there’s no back-up to it.
“And there’s no— sometimes when you’re going through a bad period, sometimes it’s actually alright for the manager to take you out and say, just stay away. You’re not going to play— you might be on the bench— but just to take that pressure off you. And if you’re not scoring. So it’s… I honestly don’t think it’s been addressed, since then.”