Now that Wayne Rooney has retired from international football - what is his overall legacy?

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Ferguson wouldn't have allowed half-time interviews - Rooney

Sir Alex Ferguson would not have allowed his players to do half-time interviews, according to Wayne Rooney.

Speaking on his new BBC podcast, The Wayne Rooney Show, Rooney said he does not see how footballers can benefit from "crazy" interviews taking place during a game.

Arsenal's Martin Odegaard spoke to Sky Sports at half-time during his side's Premier League win against Manchester United last weekend.

Rooney believes Ferguson, who was his boss for nine years at Manchester United, would have been firmly against the idea had it been raised during his time in charge - although the Scot did give half-time interviews during Champions League games.

"I know how he would have reacted and it wouldn't have been in a nice way, that's for sure!" Rooney said. "So there's no way this would have happened with Alex Ferguson.

"When I signed for DC United, they initially were trying to get me to do interviews at half-time as a player, which I refused. I think your focus, your mindset, is on the game and what should happen in the next 45 minutes, how you're going to do better or continue to do well in the second half."

The former England and Manchester United striker's new podcast airs twice weekly on BBC Sounds, YouTube and iPlayer.

In the latest episode of the podcast, Rooney also said that La Liga approving plans for Barcelona's match against Villarreal to be played in Miami is "wrong" and "should never happen".

Other one-off matches, such as the Italian Super Cup and Spanish Super Cup, have been held abroad in recent years.

But Rooney thinks it is "just wrong" to play games abroad when you have a loyal fanbase at home.

"The TV and the broadcasters will do everything they can to get as much as they can for the money they're paying," he said.

"But you've got loyal fans who go and travel all over the country watching you home and away. And then for them to miss a game - or if they want to go to the game abroad they have to pay the money which would be expected to go to, say to the States, for a hotel, travel.

"I just think it's wrong that you're taking a game away from the fans purely for money reasons. I think it's wrong and it should never happen."

Watch the Wayne Rooney Show on BBC Sport YouTube, external, and iPlayer. Listen on BBC Sounds.

BBC

 

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Fireworks and leaking toilets - Rooney on Man Utd away days

Chelsea's away dressing room was too hot. Liverpool's was too cold. Sunderland's once proved a nasty surprise for Manchester United's players from some leaking toilets on the floor above.

Those are some of the stories Wayne Rooney has revealed when remembering some of his oddest away trips on his latest BBC podcast.

Speaking on The Wayne Rooney Show, the former England captain added that plenty of his away games throughout his career have been disrupted the night before.

"We've had fireworks outside the hotel at different places," he said.

"There was one year, we played New Year's Day and we stayed in a hotel in Birmingham.

"Because there were parties downstairs in the function rooms, they put us on the top floor. But they forgot to tell us that there was a firework display on the roof of the hotel.

"At midnight all the players were woken up by all these fireworks going off right above us."

As for the flooded dressing room in Sunderland, Rooney said: "I was actually suspended [for the match].

"But above the dressing rooms were the toilets and it [the roof] came through when all of the players were in their clothes.

"I think there was a load of whatever goes into the toilet, all over the players and the clothes.

"You get some tight dressing rooms. Tottenham and Chelsea were always hot. You'd literally get dressed as quick as you can and then stand outside the dressing room.

"Anfield was always freezing. I don't know whether they manipulate the temperature in there."

Rooney added that a return to a former club could often provide the most painful away trip. When the striker went back to Goodison Park for the first time after joining Manchester United - for an FA Cup tie in February 2005 - his father refused to watch.

"Yeah, was horrible. Obviously it's a ground I've been going to since I was a kid, a baby," said the 39-year-old, who joined United as a teenager from Everton for £27m in 2004.

"My dad, that was the game he wouldn't go to. Because obviously he knew I'd be getting a lot of stick and he'd go to all the Everton games and he wouldn't go to that one, at Goodison."

Owners are obsessed with high xG - Rooney

Rooney also suggested on the podcast that the Premier League is being affected by club owners' obsession with expected goals (xG).

He believes that because of that obsession, top-flight players are taking fewer long-range shots.

"Owners want high xG because they think if you've got high xG you've got more chance to win the game," he said.

"What they want is the closer you get to the goal, the higher the xG is. So teams are actually not shooting from the edge of the box any more."

The stats back up Rooney's point. In the Premier League so far this season, there have been 7.3 shots outside the box per game, whereas nine seasons ago, in the 2016-17 campaign, the average was 10.5.

"Actually, if you've got Frank Lampard for instance, who had lots of shots from the edge of the box, his xG would be really low. But he scored 200-and-odd goals in his career," added Rooney.

"Players get all of the footage, they're the training sessions in the classrooms of what they're doing, which is fine, but I think a lot of players now are relying on it [footage and data] too much."

Rooney has sympathy for 'devastated' Ekitike

"I'm sure he'll be devastated," said Rooney when he was asked about Hugo Ekitike's unusual sending off in the Carabao Cup

Rooney was also asked about Hugo Ekitike's sending off in the Carabao Cup against Southampton on Tuesday.

After scoring a late winner, the Liverpool forward celebrated by removing his shirt, which led to him getting a second yellow card, and a suspension for Liverpool's Premier League match at Crystal Palace on Saturday.

On BBC Radio 5 Live, former Blackburn striker Chris Sutton called Ekitike's celebration "sheer stupidity", but Rooney was far more forgiving.

"He's been caught up in the emotion of scoring a goal and he'll probably regret it," said Rooney.

"I'm not defending it because it is silly, but I'm saying what we've seen over recent years with VAR and players scoring goals and waiting to celebrate and stuff, I think it's actually refreshing to see someone celebrating a goal.

"He's doing really well and it's probably a shootout for him and [fellow new signing] Alexander Isak to start [against Palace].

"He's giving Isak the chance to come in and try and take his place. So I'm sure he'll be devastated."

BBC

 

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'We tried' - Rooney defends his England team

England legend Wayne Rooney does not think recent squads have a better attitude than his so-called golden generation - and says his team just "didn't quite manage to get over the line".

Ex-Three Lions captain Steven Gerrard made headlines this week when he said their lack of success was down to key players being "egotistical losers".

Gerrard, who played for England 114 times between 2000 and 2014, added "we weren't a team".

But Rooney, speaking on his BBC podcast The Wayne Rooney Show, did not quite see it like that.

Rooney played 120 times for England, scoring a then record 53 goals, between 2003 and 2018.

Neither Gerrard nor Rooney ever got to a semi-final with England - but the Three Lions have reached two European Championship finals and a World Cup semi-final since.

"Obviously, we didn't win anything," said ex-Manchester United forward Rooney.

"I wouldn't quite put it that way but I know what he's saying. There was a lot of big characters in the dressing room.

"I wouldn't say [England squads now have a] better attitude. That's disrespectful to us as players because we worked hard, we tried. We didn't quite manage to do it.

"Even when you look back with the players we had could we have done better? We could have but it wasn't to be."

He continued: "What you have now is [rival teams'] players training [together] before they go back to pre-season together - Phil Foden and Marcus Rashford for instance.

"It's a different generation. The big thing is the media coverage of it is much better. The players get on better with the media. From the outside that gives a better feeling."

Gerrard, speaking as a guest on the Rio Ferdinand Presents podcast, said several former Manchester United and Liverpool players get on better now as pundits than they ever did as England team-mates.

"I didn't feel part of a team. I didn't feel connected with my team-mates, with England," he said.

In response, Rooney said: "It [was] difficult to have that relationship with Liverpool and Man Utd players. It's easier now.

"I speak to Steven all the time [now]. You can have better relationships now because you can have a beer together and relax more.

"I was fine with everyone, I got on with everyone. I was aware Becks [David Beckham] and Gary Neville and Scholesy [Paul Scholes], you could see they weren't going to be close to the Liverpool players.

"But one thing for sure is everyone worked hard for each other. I don't think that was an issue. We just didn't manage to get over the line. I didn't see that at all."

Rooney, like Gerrard, played in six major tournaments for England but only reached quarter-finals.

But he said the players always "100%" "believed we could win for sure".

BBC