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Sir Alex Ferguson: ‘Rooney Told Me To Sign Mesut Ozil’

By on October 22, 2013

As many of you may know, Sir Alex Ferguson’s new autobiography was released today and as expected, several interesting revelations have been exposed.

Among other things, the former Manchester United manager has revealed that striker Wayne Rooney told him to sign German super star Mesut Ozil before he joined Real Madrid in 2010 after seeing the attacker star at the 2010 World Cup.

The request was made in the midst of Rooney submitting a transfer request to leave Old Trafford over a perceived lack of ambition, but Ferguson’s reply was simply to tell the striker to mind his own business before opting to sign Javier Hernandez instead.

Writing in his autobiography, Ferguson said:

“My reply was that it was none of his business who we should have gone for.” [source: Telegraph]

Luckily for us, Ozil ended up at the Bernabeu where he stayed for three years before we signed him for £42m in the summer. Ironically, there are reports that David Moyes turned down the chance to take Ozil to United before we signed him, which is sure to have frustrated Mr Rooney even further, especially when you consider we’re sitting top of the league while United have endured a torrid start to the new campaign.

Ferguson is also adamant that Rooney asked to leave towards the end of last season, this time because he had been left out of some big games.

“He came into my office the day after we won the league and asked away. He wasn’t happy with being left out for some games and subbed in others. His agent Paul Stretford phoned David Gill with the same message.” [source: Goal]

Arsenal were strongly linked with a move for Rooney this summer but he was eventually persuaded, or forced, to stay at Old Trafford by Moyes, but he’s surely going to be looking for a way out again soon, particularly if they continue to struggle for form.

Ferguson’s claims are unlikely to go down too well in the Rooney camp and I wonder if he still fancies linking up with Ozil?! We could do with another striker at the Emirates…..just something to think about 😉

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