Rooney ‘apologized to me’ and players before signing new Man U contract: Ferguson

LONDON - Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has revealed that striker Wayne Rooney had apologized to him and the players before signing his new five-year contract with the club.

“I think Wayne has had second thoughts. I think he’s realised the enormity of Manchester United. Sometimes when you’re at a club you can’t look outside. You seem to think that something’s better elsewhere,” the Sun quoted Ferguson, as saying.

“But once all that publicity came out, particularly the impact and response from everyone about how big Manchester United is, I think that resonated with Wayne quite a lot, and he’s had second thoughts and wants to stay.”

“He has apologized to me and the players and I think he’ll do that with the fans, which is important, because we’ve all been hurt by the events of the past few days,” he added.

He also stressed that it sent a big message to all the players at Old Trafford that United is the biggest club in the world.

“I”m delighted, really delighted. In my time, no one has come in to see me and asked away in that fashion. I could understand it with Cristiano Ronaldo. We’d had him for six years, he’s from a different culture and he wanted to move on,” Ferguson said.

“For Cristiano, he still says joining Manchester United was the best move of his life, that his formative years were here. And that’s a great credit to us. He talks in the Spanish papers about what a great club Manchester United is and I don’t think there’s any doubt about that.”

“From time to time I’ll maybe make a decision to let a player go, particularly when they get older,” he added.

Rooney has signed a 60 million pound contract with United making him the best paid Premier League player in history. (ANI)