Sport

Wayne is ‘last of a dying breed’: New Manchester United boss David Moyes talks up restless Rooney

By Chris Bailey

A Wayne Rooney U-turn could be on the cards after newly-appointed Manchester United manager David Moyes expressed his admiration for the forward at a talk on Monday.

The pair will reunite from their Everton days – and are reportedly on good terms since Moyes’ successful libel lawsuit against Rooney in 2008.

One of the 50-year-old’s first tasks is to deal with Rooney’s transfer request, with the Scot dubbing the England international ‘one of the best players in the world’.

“When he left Everton, he was already an outstanding player,” Moyes told the Cambridge Union Society.

“Some of the things he used to do in training, we would stand back and look at each other as if to say, ‘How did he do that?’ He was and is an exceptional talent.

“Wayne was brilliant in some of the stuff he did. He was football mad. Every training session he would run out, volleying the ball everywhere. Staff would exchange glances that suggested, ‘Can you believe that?'”

Through indifferent form and the arrival of Robin van Persie, Rooney has been out of the Old Trafford limelight this season.

But Moyes suggested the Toxteth-born footballer plays the game in a way which the incoming Red Devils boss can relate to.

“Wayne was the last of the classic street footballers,” he added.

“As a 16-year-old he could have left training and then gone out into the street with his pals, thinking nothing of it. You would see him in the street, hitting a ball against the walls.

“Part of that culture has gone but, coming from Glasgow, I knew what it was like.

“He was the last of that kind of player I have worked with.”

Image courtesy of BBC Sport, via YouTube, with thanks.

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