Rooney and Ferguson grin and bear it during United's 3-0 loss at Newcastle in January 2012
Rooney and Ferguson grin and bear it during United's 3-0 loss at Newcastle in January 2012
Manchester United were given short notice of Marcus Rashford's interview on Tuesday night, Ineos have trimmed the workforce in the under-resourced communications department, Ruben Amorim arrived at Carrington at 7am on Wednesday morning and attended his press conference at 9am.
Amorim has got United pressing on the front foot and he is more than a match for the press on non-matchdays. He invited Rashford to a different "challenge" from the transfer he has in mind.
At the time Amorim spoke to us, he had not spoken to Rashford in three days. Rashford was unwell on Monday and off on Tuesday. Amorim fielded 16 questions centred on Rashford across the open and embargoed sections and ended the 14-minute briefing with a smile.
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Nobody fretted about Amorim's first onerous engagement with the media. He had the conviction to drop the Wythenshawe-born local hero for the Manchester derby on Sunday and United won, with a more popular winger the matchwinner.
Do not be deceived by Amorim's diplomacy. In the embargoed section, he cautioned that he can be "emotional" and was unsure how he would handle Rashford. There were some rumours of a dressing room dust-up between head coach and player but nothing concrete has come to light.
United supporters at the Etihad chanted Amorim's name and they will doubtless do so again at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Whether Rashford is there or not, his chant is unlikely to be added to the matchday playlist.
Rashford's brother and agent, Dwaine Maynard, stayed in the same hotel as United in Plzen last week. Family and club are no longer as close.
Only a handful of high-profile United players have gone public with their desire for a move elsewhere. Alex Ferguson never encountered a more heated or histrionic dispute than with Andrei Kanchelskis in 1995, a saga played out on back pages for weeks. Kanchelskis, once revered by United fans, was booed whenever he returned with Everton and, most incongruously, Manchester City in 2001.
The only one who outstayed his welcome was Wayne Rooney after he fluttered his eyelashes at City in October 2010. Rooney's form and conditioning had drifted badly yet he was the reigning PFA Player of the Year and United had an ageing and pragmatic squad. The club yielded and Rooney's salary increase to £250,000-a-week compensated for Sir Alex Ferguson not signing Mesut Ozil.
Rooney had the temerity to release a statement with the words, "I then told him (chief executive David Gill) that I would not be signing a new contract." That was released hours before United kicked off against Bursaspor in the Champions League.
Ferguson never forgot or forgave Rooney for washing his dirty laundry in public. Over their final two-and-a-half years together, Rooney's fitness was questioned repeatedly by his manager, he was dropped for the 2011 New Year's Eve defeat to Blackburn Rovers and ostracised from the United squad for Ferguson's final matches in management.
Ferguson threw Rooney under a bus and left David Moyes to repair the wreckage. Rooney only survived at United for another four years through the weakness of Moyes and Ed Woodward, the latter so vexed by Chelsea's interest he avoided any direct dialogue with the club. Rooney can at least look at his final seven years at Old Trafford with fulfilment: two titles, an elusive first FA Cup, the League Cup and the Europa League.
Amorim's "challenge" quote evoked memories of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's clunky handling of Paul Pogba. Pogba said in June 2019, "I think for me it could be a good time to have a new challenge somewhere else."
When we raised this to Solskjaer during the pre-season tour in Perth, he replied: "We’ve had many conversations and I know exactly what Paul is thinking. I can give him a new challenge."
Solskjaer had already risibly suggested there was a "media agenda" against Pogba. United repeatedly buried their heads in the sand whenever Pogba or his late agent, Mino Raiola, undermined and disrespected the club. It happened again on the eve of the crucial Champions League group stage tie away to RB Leipzig in December 2020.
The majority of United players were of the view that Pogba should be allowed to leave. Instead, United tolerated his capriciousness until his contract expired ten years on from when Pogba ran down his first United deal as a teenager.
United were in an invidious position with Cristiano Ronaldo in summer 2022. With no Champions League football to offer, Ronaldo wanted out yet any Champions League-competing club that his representative Jorge Mendes engaged - Chelsea, Napoli, AC Milan, Atletico Madrid etc. - gave him short shrift.
Having missed almost the entirety of pre-season while his baby daughter recovered from bronchitis, Ronaldo was behind the curve and United were better off without him. Ronaldo raged against the dying of the light but the light had gone out. He stooped to the low of refusing to come on during the 2-0 win against Tottenham before conducting an incendiary interview where Ronaldo confirmed he had "no respect" for manager Erik ten Hag.
That made the divorce between club and player quick and painless, unlike Ronaldo's final months in the team. United kept mum on Ronaldo's conduct, as per the request of his PR guru, Caroline McAteer. Ms McAteer has been overseeing Rashford's PR over the past year.
The treacherous Gabriel Heinze attempted to force through a move to Liverpool via a Premier League panel in 2007 and became one of the most reviled United players overnight. With Facebook becoming an addictive platform, the Red Issue fanzine mocked up Heinze's profile with the message, 'You have no friends'.
His compatriot, the gutless Angel di Maria, skipped the 2015 pre-season tour to ensure he would relocate to Paris. Di Maria came back to Old Trafford with PSG in 2019 and endured one of the most sulphurous receptions for a former player. A beer bottle was lobbed at him.
Amorim does not lack bottle with the latest United upstart.