Wayne Rooney has revealed that a tense dispute with Sir Alex Ferguson once led to a frightening visit from masked men outside his family home.
The former Manchester United captain admitted he came close to quitting Old Trafford more than once during his career, with the most high-profile standoff coming in the 2010/11 season.
At the time, Rooney had publicly questioned the club’s ambitions and even announced his intention to leave.
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A heated meeting with Ferguson ended abruptly when the legendary manager told him to leave his office.
Wayne Rooney has revealed that a tense dispute with Sir Alex Ferguson once led to a frightening visit from masked men outside his family home
|PA
Rooney, then 25, was only convinced to stay after chief executive David Gill personally assured him of United’s transfer plans.
However, in the early hours soon after the row became public, Rooney’s family home was targeted.
Speaking on The Wayne Rooney Podcast, the 39-year-old recalled the unnerving moment.
“I had a group of lads outside my house in balaclavas at three o’clock in the morning when my eldest Kai was a baby,” he said.
“It was scary. Coleen was sat up in bed feeding Kai. She woke me up and we saw all these grown men in their 40s, and some teenagers.
“I went down to the gates, and what they didn’t know is that I was going in the next morning to sign a new deal.
"I went to the gates and was like, ‘What are youse doing? Don’t come to my house at this time in the morning.’
“After it, I think they thought them coming to the house made me change my mind and sign a new deal. So they thought it worked.”
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Wayne Rooney eventually signed a new deal at Manchester United in 2010 despite falling out with Sir Alex Ferguson
|GETTY
Rooney stayed at United for six more seasons, adding two more Premier League titles — the last of which came in Ferguson’s final campaign in 2012/13.
But the relationship between player and manager never fully recovered.
Reflecting on that period, Rooney has since admitted his transfer request was a mistake.
“When I put the transfer request in, I was still speaking to David Gill on where the club was going, how they were going to move forward,” he previously explained.
“Being a manager now myself, and looking back, it was the wrong thing to do probably.
"At the time, I felt like it was the right thing to do to really get assurances for my own career.
“Once David had explained what the club were doing, I said, ‘Fine – that’s all the manager had to say. That’s all the club had to tell me,’ and then I signed the new deal.
“In terms of the relationship with the manager, of course it was never the same.
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"The big thing that probably hurt him was they had just sold Carlos Tevez, they had just sold Cristiano Ronaldo, and probably couldn’t afford to let me go.”
Rooney eventually returned to boyhood club Everton in 2017, but the episode remains one of the most turbulent moments of his career at United.