The Best Of…Part 2: Fergie Silence, Anfield & Family Feuds

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1:25Hi, I'm Kelly Summers. Welcome along to The Wayne Rooney Show. This is the second of our best of episodes. If you missed the first one, you can listen on BBC Sounds or watch it on the BBC Sport YouTube page or on the iPlayer. We'll be back with some new episodes in the new year. But for now, enjoy. We played Portsmouth in the FA Cup quarterfinal and Thomas Cusack got sent off. Rio won a goal. We lost 1-0 at Old Stafford. and it was the year we won the league on the Champions League and I think we was at Middlesbrough and Cardiff in the semi-final final for the treble. So Alex Ferguson for two weeks didn't speak to us.

2:05Two weeks? Two weeks. We had games. None of you? We had games.

2:12Wayne, you're going to have to tell us more. Who's picking the teams? He literally picked the team. He just wrote it down. You walk past him in the corridor and look at you. two weeks because he knew that was a massive missed opportunity for the terrible game. Oh my word. What are you and the players saying to each other at that point? I was just trying to stay away from him. If you see him come down the corner, are you trying to go another way? You see, when you were at City, say you did lose a Manchester derby, could you go out in Manchester that night or would you hide for the week? It kind of depended on the player.

2:47The Man City fans were good in terms of they were used to losing in so many ways. so they knew how to deal with that. So they wouldn't prevent, say, a player from having that social side because sometimes that's how players get rid of bad energy or a bad loss or a bad game. Some players just use it just to switch off. But they weren't too bad with me, to be fair. Like, not even United fans were bad with me. Wayne's smiling. So do you know after the 6-1 game? Yeah. I'm going to beat 6-1. After something like that, I'll never go home. I had a birthday party. I'm glad you brought that up. I had a birthday party.

3:30Joe Hart, Cara Barry, City players were invited to me to be partied. Wayne, I don't know why you're saying this as if no one knew. It was in the press, wasn't it? I don't know. It was, yeah. Was it? Because I knew about it. No, but I was literally sat there, I think, and I need to cancel her. Oh, really? And then, obviously, we've got family. We've got family. friends, everyone who's obviously made their own plans to cover. I was like, can't tell, it went. And then obviously we've got the United lads, some of the City lads sat there and we sat there just like... Do you talk to each other? Yeah, of course.

4:04Well, in the end, I think there was me, Crouchy, Hearty. We all got up and done a song of Baxley Boys. Which one was it? I can't remember. I can't remember which one was it. Well, is that how you broke the ice? That was just the best way to get over it. All my family are Evertonians, and all Colleen's family live Pudlian. So it's, yeah, it's always... How was that when you were playing in it, if all of her family are Evertonians? Yeah, fine. We're not an issue, really. We actually, when we got the Champions League final in Moscow, one of Colleen's brothers wouldn't go. he refused to go so Cleo and her dad one of her brothers went and her other brother wouldn't go and he said he said to me I want you to do well but I couldn't I couldn't bear being at the stadium watching Man United lift the Champions League if he was winning so yeah he didn't go I kind of respect that actually yeah so but yeah well when when Liverpool won what was it when he won the Premier League a few years ago I actually come home I was at Derby I think it was at the time and I come home and clean lift pool flags up outside of the house so how fuming were you so it was at it was at old house so outside the front door there was like a little balcony thing and the flag was outside the window there so I told her to go and get it down so she went up and you had to actually climb out the window to get it down so she went up so I locked her out how long for no not too long but yeah she was stuck on the balcony but yeah and like now even I think now still Colleen's mum and dad they've got he's got champions flags up at the house so yeah there's Liverpool around but yeah it's old man at Evertonians I remember you scoring around field once and I was in the cop and some fella you never turn that phone I was going to say some fella three goals behind me It was knocking at 33-10 and it was like, weren't that far away from you, to be fair.

6:19Was that the first time or the second time? No, that was my first ever game for United at Anfield. It'd be 1-1 num. It was in a black kit, innit? Yeah, I've scored the Corp. Done that in front of me, and I've whistled past me, past me head, whatever button. To be honest, after that, I think I only scored once again at Anfield. Was it the one where the half volley? Yeah, they come off the bar and I scored under Van Gaal. That was, we won 1-0. But other than that, I don't think I even played well in Anfield. I scored a few goals at Old Trafford. But it was just such an emotional place for me to go and a hard place for me to go and perform.

6:59You see when you're doing that to the Kop? What is going through your head? Because obviously they're shouting dogs have reset you. What are you thinking? Did you feed off of it? Oh, yeah. It was the felt on top of the world, I don't imagine. No, because obviously I'd left Everton to go to United and my first game around field for United and I was scored with 1-0 up obviously doing that and you've got like a bit of a struttle about you then and then we had a chance late on, I can't remember who it was and I was desperate for us not to score because I just wanted my goal to be the goal at one of the game so I was desperate for us not to score to stay 1-0 and after the game obviously walking out and I got on the bus and I literally went got by another rocket by Queen's we got there and I got off and then I went to Queen's mum's dad in I think they might still be in Crocket so I got off by the rocket and then took a stage in Liverpool and then went for food and then banter and stuff and whatever but no when you score the win against Liverpool it's special okay we woke up this morning didn't we to to a message from wayne um and a video from wayne about about his night do you want to tee this up it said it was uh 1 30 in the morning uh we get a message he's like i've just done a duo with the lads i've got a video of it we'll send it on in comes the video and it's it's a brilliant Listen, listen, some will call it a masterpiece in musical ability, right?

8:38Yeah, let's just play it. Let's cut to the chase. This is a snippet of this absolute gold. It's all about you. It's all about you. It's all about you. Oh, Danny laughing. Every night I'm laughing, watching the things you do. Woo! Woo! Woo! but I miss kissing you.

9:06You wanted to go and try doing something new. Though I can't be by your side. Do you know the funniest thing about this for me is how serious your face looks when you're delivering it? You look nervous, Wayne. Well, I've got Danny Jones and Tom Fletcher sat next to me and Rick Astley was stood there literally 10 yards away from me watching. so yeah it was quite nervous but I love music yeah so I've been waiting for so long to get this song out and do it I was meant to do it in so I actually I wrote the lyrics to it and sent them to Tom Fletcher when Cleen was in the jungle and I said can we use this on your song it's all about you could have changed the lyrics a bit I was going to send a video I was going to film it with Tom and send a video in, sending me letter from home in the jungle.

10:03I was going to use the song to clean. And unfortunately, or probably fortunately now, we got beat by Norwich 6-1 the night before. And so I had to go home with the team. So I didn't do it. So you're telling us that Norwich City beating your team robbed us of seeing that absolute gold on TV. Yeah, unfortunately. So, yeah, no, I love music. I really like that song. and yeah and then last night after the concert the concert was amazing by the way both buster that macfly were were brilliant and then after it we went back and had a couple of beers and i said to tom can you get your guitar out and can we do the song so i think he was quite surprised that i was going to do it there's only about 30 people there and um so i done it and sang it to clean yeah head over to youtube by the way to see the full version my highlight if you're just watching this as a podcast my highlight is when wayne does the verse on his own and then he gets to like the main chorus and he desperately needs the assistance he's like oh i can't do this main and you whack danny on the shoulder as if to say help me out here but you can't do this yeah i couldn't i couldn't get that note so um a good knock to help me out but no no do you know what it was a great night um good fun um really enjoyed it we were done we sat and watched it with Danny's mum as well.

11:26So it was a really good night. And if anyone hasn't been, I'd suddenly suggest you go, it was really good. My favourite thing about that is all your hand movements. It's the hand movements that you do. Yeah, you've got to get into the song now. You've got to get into it. I'm an emotional person. And yes, when I'm singing as well, especially, yeah, sometimes the emotion takes over. Was Killeen proud of you? What did she say? I've sang it to her before. and when she sees me sitting down and Tom went on his guitar, I would say, please don't. But yeah, no, it's good fun. Wayne, would you have liked to have played this?

12:06Still can if you want. Yeah, I was going to say, yeah. Can do a job. Maybe still can, yeah. I'd play you deeper than up front. I'd play you deeper. Yeah, I can't run the channels anymore. Nah, middle of park, spray it. Just spray it. That's all I want from you, Wayne. Don't even need to run me, honestly. because of eight stir if you turn it up it might bring your XG down XG XG expected goals I expect them every week are you big into like the stats no no football's played on grass not a graph sometimes we struggle for grass in Sunday league but I don't I don't deal with stats and data have you got anyone that kind of tries to help you with that Paul Sampson wanted to use one of these GPS tracker things eat maps you've got a download app for this I said, absolutely not.

12:52No, don't need it. I don't need an app to tell me if Tommy is blowing out of his arse. I can see it because he looks like a beat room. I used to love it, but it's Arsenal. And obviously there's some big ones which everyone knows about. Do you want me to list them out for you? All my favourite Wayne Rooney against Arsenal. We've been doing this, haven't we? In our messaging group today, we've kind of all been throwing in. And there's some brilliant memories, Wayne, isn't it? But it kind of shows what a different fixture this is now, I think. Yeah, I remember my first game at Highbury for Man United was the game with Rui and Vieira in the tunnel and you feel it, you feel, you know, the game's on a knife edge and you can feel that and you know, even the referee got it.

13:38It was, you know, you had the Fabregas one with Alex Ferguson in the tunnel with throwing a pizza at him and And, you know, there's fights in the tunnel, which, you know, everyone was involved in as well. And, you know, I think when we beat them 2-0 after the Keown incident, obviously the Keown moment was before I was there, but the next year we beat them 2-0. And Sol Campbell didn't speak to me for over six months. We'd meet up with England and Sol still wouldn't speak to me. Were you happy about that though? Yeah, sometimes I was with Sol. but no I'd say to him come on man we're playing for England here and he wouldn't speak to me because he felt I dived and which he left his leg out I think there was a small contact but anyway Did you ever have it out Wayne?

14:26Did you ever how did you get over that? Yeah actually you do and I think it was a big game for Arsenal it was the if they won it was 50 games one beating so he was disappointed but yeah it was about six months he wouldn't speak to me The best B2B marketing gets wasted on the wrong people. So when you want to reach the right professionals, use LinkedIn ads. LinkedIn has grown to a network of over 1 billion professionals, including 130 million decision makers. And that's where it stands apart from other ad buys. You can target your buyers by job title, industry, company, role, seniority, skills, company revenue, so you can stop wasting budget on the wrong audience.

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16:04what's Wayne really like to live with do you know what he's quite easy because he doesn't do much that's the biggest backhanded compliment I've ever heard no so he's not like I love this big class episode could end into talks Is this like Villarreal all over again? I get home, I cook the kids food. No, I don't mean like that. I mean like if you live with someone and the... Like I think I'm probably harder to live with than he is. Because I'm more... I want to be doing things. I'm more... That's why I say to her all the time. I'm watching what I say now. No, no, that's why I say to her all the time.

16:47Why don't you sit down for two hours and have a rest? Two hours? Yeah, and she'll get annoyed if I take the kids to school and come back and sit on the couch and watch TV. You were like that in the jungle, actually. You're always doing something. So she'll get annoyed if I'm like, well... I just don't like wasting time. It's not harming you. But he will take the kids to school. He'll come back and he'll get on the couch and then he won't get off the couch until he picks the kids up from school. Oh, my God, that sounds... Yeah, but he's Wayne Rooney, isn't he? Like, I think he's allowed. I think...

17:19I can relate to that. My missus gets a bit annoyed as well. like sitting on the couch and it's like what are you doing? And it's like well let me just rest and I've been working. Yeah. Let me just rest I've been working. Then the flip side of that he's not doing anything that annoying he's just sitting on the couch. Yeah for I'm trying to stick up for you. I'm taking everything in on the TV to put together for the podcast. Yeah research. Research. There you go. What's Colleen like to live with Wayne? No amazing. She does everything. No she does everything for me for the kids organisation has everything there but like intense like last night I got food in last night and then waiting like 3 hours because she's cleaning up or she's doing something until she sits down and then I've got the jungle on pause so we have to watch it at 12 o 'clock and then she'll sit down no one ever mess with a kid's bedtime like she's not 1am So, yeah, that part of it, I guess, frustrated.

18:24But no, she organised everything for us. Forget all this small talk, Wayne, man. When are we going round to Michael Owens and having a chat? Yeah, never mind Jack Grealish. We've got more pressing matters on this show. Michael Owens has been talking on Rio's podcast. What did you make of the comments, though? For people that haven't seen it, obviously he was asked about you and he did say some really nice stuff as well. But I think the ones that have got the headlines are when he was asked out of the present day strikers, who was as good as he was at 17 or 18 and he was asked to compare, I think, to you, wasn't he?

18:55Yeah, no, listen, me and Michael are very different players, different attributes. Michael Owen at 17, 18 was incredible. I used to go out on the street and pretend to be him. I pretend to be Michael Owen and even though he played flip. but yeah so what he's saying I completely understand what he's saying but with two completely different footballers in different styles different techniques and Mike Lowen for a three four year period was probably the best sense forward in the world and it's hard to argue against anyone coming up against Mike Lowen then unfortunately he did get his injuries and he probably couldn't adapt his game maybe as well as I could in playing from the side or going back into midfield.

19:53So yeah, I think it's common to fair. I think, of course, he's going to back himself. I back myself. But I'd never judge myself against Michael Owen because he's someone I actually looked up to and had the pleasure of playing alongside. You're so humble, Wayne, on Saturday if that was me if I'd have won everything you'd want I'd be like I'd start bringing up my whole trophy collection there's also a level of respect there isn't there there's clear respect obviously I played with him for England and then later on in his career at Manchester United I was delighted for him because he come to Manchester United and that's a massive move for him obviously playing for Liverpool him come to play for Manchester United from obviously not direct but from Liverpool that's a big thing and he come and I was delighted he won the obviously he got a Premier League medal and I was really happy for him and but yeah no listen I would never ever judge myself against Michael Owen because with different players different personalities different people I respect him massively and I think you know for two or three years he unstoppable so I think people do forget actually how good he was he was incredible and me and him are different players if I was a similar type player and we were judging ourselves then that's different Kay, did it surprise you that he got so involved on social media because he'd done his research hadn't he?

21:26Yeah, he had the stats out and everything Do you know what, I think, like Wayne said, Michael Owen was devastating for a period of time It was crazy I think, the thing is with Michael Owen I think because of the way his career panned out, he doesn't really have any fan base that sticks up for him. So, do you know what? Just on that, I think Michael can come across a little bit boring. He's not, is he? I've worked with him. He's not boring. He is one of the funniest people you'll meet. Yeah. And being in his company, honestly, he's so funny and dry. Well, that came out in that interview, I think.

22:00Yeah, I'm with him. And a lot of people think, oh, he can seem quite boring. He is so funny. So, I hope, I hope he just gets that out because everyone who play with him, we know what a good lad he is. And sometimes that doesn't always come across. No, but that did come out in the interview. But what I was meaning to say was because I think the way his career went out, he didn't really have any fan base now that sort of rides for him and backs him on social media. So he sort of has to back himself, if you like, because I feel like Liverpool fans are scorned a little bit because he went to United.

22:36United fans, because he played for Liverpool, don't really want to back it for him. And I think Newcastle fans, well, they feel what they do about Michael Owen. So it's like, unless you're like a real diehard England fan, nobody really talks about Michael Owen like that, unfortunately. All the Donald fans from Massinga is by behind them.

22:59That joke of Michael. Can I just ask you a quick question? What was it like? You talked about what it was like playing with Wayne on the pitch obviously you had this great relationship what was he like off it at England? He's a scouse already so isn't he? Nah good lad Everyone's got a good Wayne story Nah good lad Can't be set Why's it Why's it loves football I don't know if you remember this so we I was sitting there and I'm quiet so I'll just sit there and watch you believe that you're the best player in every position and he was caning I can't remember who it was he was just caning the right back I can do that you're crap what's this I'm better than you at right back if I played right back I'd be Cafu I don't keep saying this thing I can't remember it was it was wasn't it but he just he had this mentality and this is the mentality you need to be at the top no one's better than him it doesn't matter what position I'm playing I'm better than all of you and I'm sure you said it's a goalie as well yeah keepers as well no but I used to hate losing and I remember when Theo Theo spoke about it.

24:05Got an England squad when he was 16, 17. He shouldn't have been there really that time. And then I'm playing snooker with John Terry. And next thing, I've just smashed the snooker queue open. Because John Terry's beat me. And I remember Theo just looking out. What is going on here? You said before that you kind of hung around with everyone and you mentioned some of the names, but who did you kind of hang around with? Because to be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if there was, from what you said, a few people avoiding you in the afternoon at camp, because it sounds like you were a right pain. Yeah, no.

24:39In a good way. No, obviously it was with Stevie quite a lot, with Frank, Ash Cole, Melon. So after games, when we had the double-edged games, me, Ashley and Frank would go back into one of our rooms and we'd get like a bottle of red wine and have a couple of glasses of wine. Was that allowed? Yeah, you could, after the game, you could chill and whatever but yeah and you used to have a little glass of wine and just talk and stuff which you know was good and different players done different things and and whatever so yeah it was weird I always remember years ago we got invited to Beck's for a dinner I think there was me Lamps me Lamps and a couple more players we went to his house and me and Cleen we were only like 19 or something like this is weird what's happening here and then they're walking around and he's showing us around his house and then I opened the door and I think I bumped one it was his eldest boy Brooklyn I bumped his head he started crying I was like Jesus opened the door and bumped his head but yeah that was like surreal and you know sat there Berks and Victoria and having dinner.

26:01It was like mad. What was dinner? I can't remember. Was it posh? No. No, we went to, met up with Bex and Victoria, me and Cleen, when he was at Madrid and went for dinner then. We were having kebabs. Come on. Stereotypes being completely thrown out the window. But you know, obviously great lad and Victoria is such a lovely woman and funny, like a lot funnier the more people would think. What was it like for you being at Barcelona at that time? Because you were literally surrounded by superstars, watching superstars everywhere you went. Yeah. For me, that was my dream. Like, my name is Xavi because of Xavi Hernandez.

26:47My mom, she put the name because of him. And being there for me was, yeah, was the, yeah, was the dream. and being there, living and seeing all these players, Messi, Niesta, Xavi, Hernandez, and seeing them every day. I saw them a lot of times in the training ground and that was like a big inspiration for me as well. To see these kind of players was such incredible. Did anybody sort of take you under their wing and give you advice? In the start, no, because I was really young, but after when I started growing up and I was getting close to the first team. Neymar was there. Okay. And I did a commercial, I remember, when I was 12 years old with him.

27:34And at that time, Neymar for me was, wow, this is my idol. Like, I was always watching on YouTube, like, Neymar's skills, how do they do his skills? And one day I did a commercial with him and I remember going home back and I sit down with my mom and my brother. I said to my mom, okay, one day I will play with this guy. I need to play, like 100%, I need to play with my idol. And then I remember my brother, he was laughing at me, he said, yeah, Joey, come on, come on. So, yeah, Neymar was the one, like, and after, obviously, he went to PSG. I was really sad for one day when he left Barca to go to PSG.

28:12But, yeah, then one year later, I joined PSG, and I luckily, yeah, made this dream come true as well. They say never meet your heroes. What was it like meeting him? Was he everything you hoped he'd be? Yeah, I was 12 years old when I meet him for the first time. And you can imagine, like, for me, it was my eyes were like this, like, wow, I touched him a little bit. You know, so for me at that time, like, yeah, this was the dream. And then, yeah, at 16, playing with him was an amazing thing. Wayne, who was your idol when you were kind of growing up? Not so much as Neymar, but mine was more Duncan Ferguson.

28:56There was a guy who played for Everton. No, it was a tough night in my two years. And he actually went to jail. And I was a young boy who supports Everton, so I used to write to him in jail. And then he'd write back. So I was the same, somewhere like 12, something like that. and then four years later I played alongside him so for me that was like yeah letters? what were the letters saying? it was just me saying telling him how much I love him basically week after week what was he saying back? well thanks for it means a lot obviously when you're in jail as well you take anything so when you actually met him did you tell him I was the one writing the letters?

29:38yeah and then because I was too young to drive as well so he'd take me home from training My family were all massive Evertonians. And so Duncan Ferguson would take me home to my mum's house. Oh, wow. My dad's out the window and stuff like that. Yeah, so that was surreal. But I think there's so many. And like Ronaldo, Arnane, for me as well, just watching him play was incredible. He was like my favourite player, really. Wayne, who else did you kind of play with when you were playing? I imagine during your career, footballers have a lot of downtime. You know what, we used to play, not FIFA, true story, this Man United, I really believed a big part of our success was playing the PSP.

30:22Really? Why? Not honestly, because it got us communicating more. We used to play the PSP, we used to play it on the plane, on the team bus. You'd play like 5v5, so there'd be me, Rio, Michael Carrick, John O'Shea, Wes Brown, and 5v5 and called SOCOM on the PSP. it was an army game and you have to talk you have to tactically be right and and um go and revive people when you get killed and um it was a massive part of our success i believe so and you ask any of them players you played at the same time it was brilliant and actually how how you played that game actually reflected um that player how they play the game it was it was it was crazy like Michael Carrick was little sneaky calm one who you know you'd be lying down hiding and you'd just hear a little grenade bouncing by you where he'd throw it at you so what were you like then Wayne?