Wayne Rooney has revealed his temper with Paul Pogba and Jesse Lingard once spilt over at a Manchester United training session.
In his column for The Times, Rooney hailed Pogba as the best player of the Euros prior to France’s exit in the round of 16, but recounted one occasion when his “old-school” instincts got the better of him.
“I do remember one time, coming into training at United the day after a defeat, still feeling very annoyed and walking into the dressing room with Michael Carrick,” he said.
“We found Jesse and Paul dancing in there with the music on. I went over, turned it off and took the speakers out of the dressing room – because that’s my mindset, that’s how I’ve grown up in football.
“Paul and Jesse accepted it, because I was the senior player, but in hindsight, they were not doing anything wrong, not hurting anyone, and it was just my old-school mentality kicking in.
“As Rio Ferdinand has said, players of our generation just have to get used to this generation and what has changed.”
Despite that incident, Rooney claims Pogba’s attitude was exemplary from the minute he arrived at Old Trafford.
“After he returned [from Juventus] in 2016, we had a season together under Jose Mourinho. Then, as before, Paul’s application was always fantastic, and his mentality was spot on.
“He wanted to win, he was a strong character, committed to the team. You should ignore all the silly criticism that comes his way. All that stuff about his hair-cuts and dancing – it’s irrelevant. None of it has anything to do with the player that Paul is.”
Rooney added: “People can have their opinions about Paul’s football, that’s fine, but some jump to conclusions about his character without knowing him.
“In my experience as a team-mate, the actual work he puts in every day on the training ground is first class. As long as that doesn’t change, then the stuff he does off the pitch – which has slowed down anyway – does not matter in my opinion.”
