Wayne Rooney reveals all on Man Utd transfer request

Wayne Rooney reveals all on Man Utd transfer request and impact behind the scenes

Manchester United legend Wayne Rooney has lifted the lid on his close brush with the Old Trafford exit in 2010 when he controversially requested a transfer out of the club

The infamous transfer request saga revolving around Wayne Rooney perhaps wasn't as straightforward as many believe.

Manchester United's all-time top scorer has shed new light on the furore that erupted around Old Trafford when he asked to leave in 2010. And it turns out a move to rivals Manchester City wasn't the foregone conclusion many supposed at the time.

Rooney, 38, sat down with Gary Neville, Roy Keane, Jamie Carragher and Jill Scott on Sky Bet's Stick to Football podcast to discuss one of the most dramatic periods of his career in detail. And the episode resulted in a rift that would affect the rest of his stay with the Red Devils.

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“It was 2010 [when I asked for a transfer]. It wasn’t Manchester City – it was more I wanted answers,” said Rooney. “There were a few teams asking – there was Real Madrid, Barcelona was asking, City was asking, Chelsea.

“I genuinely wanted to stay [at Manchester United] but there was a clash of me and the manager [Sir Alex Ferguson] as well, and once you try and disagree with him, he doesn’t take it lightly. My relationship with the manager after that moment was never the same.”

The Everton academy product soon performed a U-turn and signed a new five-year contract at Old Trafford, where he eventually played until 2017. And it was only a few months after the transfer request saga that he ended up scoring “the best goal of his career,” a bicycle kick winner in the Manchester derby that went down in Premier League history.

Neville, 49, recalled first hearing about Rooney's request and initially thinking “there's no comeback from that.” And the former club captain encouraged the Liverpudlian to apologise to the rest of the squad for the manner in which he and agent Paul Stretford went about chasing a move away from the club (and eventually his new deal).

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“I’d seen it many times previously over the past 10, 15 years,” said Neville. “I thought, ‘How did that turn around from [Rooney] making that statement?’

“Me and ‘Giggsy’ [Ryan Giggs], spoke to [Rooney] the morning after in the gym and said, ‘You have to say sorry to the lads,’ which [he] did. We never thought it would turn around with the manager.”