Before the FA Cup tie Derby’s player-coach discusses the way back for
Manchester United and why his second Everton exit rankles
Four months on, the sight of Wayne Rooney in a Derby County tracksuit is still slightly surreal. Even more so given he is discussing tackling Manchester United on Thursday, emitting a warm glow as he tries to sum up more than a decade at Old Trafford: 13 years, 12 trophies, 559 appearances and a record 253 goals. “I loved it there,” he says. “Some huge highs and some lows. When you’ve been somewhere so long, and you look back on it, your old teammates and the staff, it was the main part of my career. It was enjoyable and something I’ll look back on with great memories. There was obviously the time when I nearly left the club, which I regret. There were lows but they were certainly outweighed by the highs.”
For Rooney the FA Cup fifth round promises to be a special, if not a slightly strange occasion at a sold-out Pride Park but facing United is not an alien prospect after twice doing so on his return to Everton three years ago. By the end of the 2017-18 season, Everton deemed Rooney dispensable and he left for DC United until touching down at Derby. The muddiness of that second Goodison Park exit rankles. “It was a big thing for me to go back there. There were things that got said, or didn’t get said. At the end of the day all I wanted from Everton was a bit of honesty with the situation. I said to them: ‘I’m not a child, I’ll accept whatever you want to happen here.’ That was the only disappointment. But Everton is a fantastic club, I’m delighted for them bringing [Carlo] Ancelotti in and they look like they are thankfully, finally, moving forward.”