Rooney in Danger of United Exit

FERGUSON FALL-OUTS

Sir Alex Ferguson has fallen out with some high-profile figures at Old Trafford. We pick out some of the major bust-ups from his career.

JAAP STAM
The Dutch defender was considered to be one of the best centre-backs in the world when Sir Alex sold him to Lazio in 2001. Stam had angered his manager by releasing a warts-and-all autobiography, Head to Head, in which he gave his opinion on several of his United team-mates and claimed Sir Alex made an illegal approach to sign him from PSV Eindhoven. Sir Alex later admitted selling Stam was a mistake.

PAUL INCE
Rarely one to leave a club in anything other than acrimonious circumstance, Ince moved to Old Trafford from West Ham United after being pictured in United shirt before signing. The England midfielder got too big for his boots at United and he was sold to Inter Milan in 1995. Sir Alex branded Ince as a "bottler" and a "big-time Charlie".

DAVID BECKHAM
Beckham's love of the media spotlight had long riled Sir Alex, believing that his star winger was spending too much time lapping up the attention of the paparazzi with his pop star girlfriend. It all reached a head in February 2003 when, after an FA Cup defeat to Arsenal, Sir Alex kicked a boot across the changing room which hit Beckham above the eye. Beckham made sure the whole world saw that he required stitches and at the end of the season he was sold to Real Madrid.

GABRIEL HEINZE
Heinze suffered an amazing fall from grace at United, from wearing the captain's armband for the last two games of the 2006-07 season to pleading to join arch-rivals Liverpool in a £6.8 million deal just two months later. He never played for United again and was sold to Real Madrid.

ROY KEANE
Few players at United get away with public criticism of the team, and talismanic midfielder Keane was not exempt. Granted, his star may have waned by the time he began slagging of the likes of Darren Fletcher in 2005, along with facilities on the club's pre-season tour. Within a few months he was out of the club as, in November, they mutually agreed to terminate his contract.

RUUD VAN NISTELROOY
Van Nistelrooy's time at Old Trafford came to an end at the conclusion of the 2005-06 season after an alleged training ground fight with Cristiano Ronaldo led to the striker being benched for the remaining six games of the season. Sir Alex's view on the affair was clear as Van Nistelrooy was sold in the summer.

THE BBC
Sir Alex will still not give any interviews to the broadcaster, which holds the Premier League rights in the UK, after a documentary made accusations against his son. Despite the Premier League introducing a new rule for this season to force managers to speak after games, Sir Alex still refuses to face their cameras. Just what those in power can do to Sir Alex to make him speak is unclear.

JOHN MAGNIER
Once one of Sir Alex's best friends and business partner in the ownership of the highly-successful racehorse Rock of Gibraltar, they fell out in 2004 over stud returns in the region of £75 million. John Magnier and his partner JP McManus, through their company Cubic Expressions, owned 25% of United at the time and tried to force a rolling one-year contract on Ferguson and an investigation into how the club was being run.

The Story of Wayne Rooney

Any other week and it would have been headline-grabbing stuff but, amid the legal wreckage of the Liverpool affair, it took almost 24 hours for the news agenda to swing in the direction of Wayne Rooney.

GettyImages

Wayne Rooney: Spoke out after lacklustre showings against Montennegro

Delivered in the aftermath of a decidedly low-quality England performance against Montenegro, Rooney attempted to shift the focus away from his poor form and instead chose to open a can of worms. "I've had no problems with my ankle all season," Rooney said. "I've been training for the last two months and I haven't missed a training session so there's no problem with my fitness." Asked why Sir Alex Ferguson had said that he did have an ankle injury, Rooney replied: "Don't know." Cue frenzied talk of a rift and reports that new contract talks are on the rocks.

The football media loves nothing better than a Fergie feud, and especially when it is with a leading player. Rooney's declaration flew in the face of his manager's statement that his striker would miss the trip to Valencia and a visit to Sunderland because of a need to recover from the putative injury. It also acted against TV evidence of his being treated with an ice-pack at Bolton, and photographic evidence of his leaving a hospital after a reported scan.

"I think Wayne will be two to three weeks," Sir Alex Ferguson had said before going on that attacking form of defence familiar to those who brave his press conferences. "It is a straightforward ankle injury. Nobody likes to be injured but he is. There is nothing you can do about it. What do you want me to say? Do you want me to describe every ligament? Christ."

Could this be the beginning of one of those long goodbyes that have littered the Fergie years? Is Rooney to follow the likes of Strachan, Leighton, Ince, Beckham, Keane and Van Nistelrooy in a gradual cold-shouldering that leads to an exit in which it is agreed by all parties, though really Ferguson, that it really was time to move on?

The warnings signs are there, and Rooney may have already broken a golden rule in lifting the lid on his manager's machinations. But then, perhaps Rooney is different to such predecessors. Is he of the elite group of players that Ferguson will indulge? That list contains Robson, Schmeichel, Cantona and, latterly, Ronaldo. Keane was of that number until that bitter end, while both Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs have also escaped the black spot when becoming embroiled in run-ins with the boss.