Old Trafford boss left out England man because of Hooker-Gate, so says Toffees manager.
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David Moyes has questioned whether Wayne Rooney was left out of the Manchester United squad to face Everton solely because Sir Alex Ferguson wanted to protect his striker from crowd abuse.
The build-up to Saturday’s clash at Goodison Park was dominated by talk of Rooney and the reception he might receive at his former club, especially in the wake of recent allegations regarding his private life.
Ferguson made the decision not to select Rooney, explaining that it was ‘simply because he gets terrible abuse’ at Everton and the United manager did not want to subject him to that.
Moyes, who saw his side mount an astonishing late rally to claim a 3-3 draw, feels there may have been other reasons for Rooney’s lack of involvement.
The Everton boss feels Rooney might have been left out as reminder to behave appropriately off the field, while he could also have been dropped for poor form so far this season.
Asked if he thought it was a worrying development for football for Rooney to be omitted because of the potential crowd response, Moyes said in The Times: “It might be, but maybe the manager there just felt it was the right decision not to play him here.
“Maybe he thought he was not playing that well, maybe he thought that he wanted to leave somebody out, maybe he thought his games hadn’t been so (good).
“So I don’t think you should put it all on that (the crowd).
“Maybe he was making sure everybody realises that if you play for Manchester United,you have to conduct yourself in a manner and our football club doesn’t really care who you are.
“I’m sure the manager did what he thought was right.” (Sky Sports)
So is David Moyes merely deflecting attention away from the reasons given by Sir Alex for Rooney’s absence or could the Goodison Park boss have hit the nail on the head. Sir Alex Ferguson will not have been happy about the tabloid revelations but it seems unlikely he would cut off his own nose to spite his face. Removing the best player you have from your starting eleven to make a point will never have the desired effect.
Was the England man missed? Well Man United scored three times so it would seem that the onus of the blame for the two points lost would rest on the back four who went missing in injury time and I am sure they would have gotten a lambasting in the dressing room afterwards.
If Ferguson was generally making a point by dropping the 24 year old for his off field misdemeanour’s then I guess he would still present a different reason to the camera’s because like any great boss he would keep any in house punishments out of the media scrutiny and then dealt with Rooney privately.
What do United fans think? If Rooney was dropped for his shenanigans then was it a wise move?