Wayne Rooney might no longer be a Manchester United player, but he's still been at the centre of a few different matters around the club.
Across nearly a decade and a half at Old Trafford, the England international scored 253 goals in 559 appearances. Since leaving in 2017, though, he has been busy away from Manchester while still keeping a close eye on his former club.
Now 37, the one-time Everton starlet has moved onto the second phase of his career with managerial spells at Derby County and DC United. Plenty of players and managers tend to case a long shadow at Old Trafford after leaving United, though, and Rooney is no exception.
Back at United
While Rooney himself is no longer on United's books, his sons remain at the club. 12-year-old Kai and Klay, 9, are both in the academy, along with Cristiano Ronaldo's son Cristiano Junior, and there is hope of at least one family dynasty developing.
According to The Sun, Wayne was simply back on his old stomping ground to see how his sons were getting on, with Kai boasting an impressive scoring record at age-group level. Still, that didn't stop some speculating that the DC boss - who was spotted in a club tracksuit - might be taking up a new role.
”The biggest issue about coming here [to DC] was leaving the family behind,” Rooney told The Times in September after taking on his latest managerial role. "That was a big decision.
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"You miss the small things. Picking the kids up from school and things like that. But there’s people in much worse jobs who don’t get to see their kids before they’re working away from home for months, and aren’t in as fortunate a situation as me.”
Ronaldo message
On the subject of those with children at Old Trafford, Rooney's comments on Ronaldo's situation have been interesting. Last season's top scorer has been sidelined by United boss Erik ten Hag, being left out of the side to face Chelsea after refusing to come off the bench against Tottenham, but the problems started before then.
Ten Hag has preferred to use Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial ahead of Ronaldo, and some solid results have been achieved without the Portuguese international. And, while Rooney will be well aware his former teammate is no longer the player he was during their time together more than a decade ago, he still spoke out on the matter.
"The manager's obviously gone a different way in terms of how they're playing and been successful," Rooney told media at the start of October (via the MEN ). "Cristiano... him and (Lionel) Messi are two of the greatest players to ever play the game, but ultimately time catches up with us all. He's obviously not the player he was when he was 22 or 23, for instance. It's a tough one for him.
"Knowing him, it'll be very difficult for him to sit on the bench. I'm sure if he stays patient, his chance will come and, again, it's then obviously him taking those chances and trying to force his way back in."
Warning signs
United haven't been in the best of shape in recent years, at least in comparison to when Rooney and Ronaldo were in full flight together. Their most recent league title came in 2013, and even that - in Rooney's eyes - was quite the achievement.
"You could see after 2011; Ronaldo left in 2009, Tevez left and after that you could see it was going to go backwards before it can move forwards," he said. "That’s what I could see and that’s why I was asking the questions [about transfer policy]. Unfortunately, they probably still haven’t recovered from that to this day.
“It wasn’t a great team in 2013. For us to win that League title was a miracle, really, I think. A massive part of it was Van Persie. I think him coming in gave everyone a lift, coming in at number nine, scoring the goals he scored."
Things have started to improve for United of late, though another league title still looks some way away. Under Ten Hag, they have recorded home victories over Arsenal, Liverpool and Tottenham this season, while making progress in the Europa League as they chase a first trophy since 2017.
There is still some way to go before United return to their glory days, but they're at least approaching the point where they can be a real match for the league's best with some regularity. Maybe their next title challenge, when it comes about, won't rely on a miracle.
