Alex Ferguson Admits That Wayne Rooney Wants Out

Alex Ferguson has admitted that Wayne Rooney revealed that he wanted to leave Manchester United before the start of the new season.

The Manchester United manager met with Rooney back in August when the striker revealed that he did not want to sign a new contract at the club, his current deal runs out in the summer of 2012.

And the Scot admits that he was 'dumfounded' when he heard that Rooney wanted to leave the club after he joined them from Everton in 2004.

In a frank interview with MUTV Ferguson said: "I was in the office on 14 August and David phoned me to say he [Rooney] wasn't signing a contract.

"I was dumbfounded. Only months before he was saying he was at the greatest club in the world."

"Dealing with the next step was always going to be decisive for us, how we dealt with the situation. I asked to have a meeting with the boy and he reiterated what his agent said, that he wanted to go.

"The one thing I said to him was 'respect this club, I don't want any nonsense from you'.

"I don't know if he has done that. I have doubts on that, we are reading all these things about falling out with me and all that nonsense.

"It's disappointing because we have done everything we possibly can to help Wayne Rooney ever since he came to the club.

"We have always been here as a harbour for him any time he has been in trouble, the advice we have given him. I was even prepared to give him financial advice.

"But it's not just Wayne Rooney, we have done that for all the players. Wayne has been the beneficiary of that, just as Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes have... so there has been no falling out.

"So there we are, we have got into a situation where we had to clarify this for our fans because what we saw on Saturday was unacceptable.

"When we got to 2-2 [against West Brom] and they were chanting Wayne Rooney, it's a pressure on the players and didn't do the team any good so we had to clarify the situation and put it right."

Rooney has struggled for form all summer, under-performing at the World Cup, and he found himself in the media spotlight at the beginning of the season when allegations about his personal life hit the headlines.

Since then he has continued to struggle with his form and Ferguson has sidelined him as he was believed to have been suffering with an ankle injury.

But Rooney contradicted Ferguson's statement last week claiming that he was fit and not suffering from any injury issues. The future of the player has hit headlines all week as Chelsea, Manchester City, Barcelona and Real Madrid are all rumoured to be interested in signing the striker.

Rooney will not be in Champions League action tonight against Bursaspor after a knock in training.

FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw