mancboy123 said:
In response to stony and us not being a big club for letting him do this while in some respects i agree we have bent over as far as we should for this whinger. Its not without precident when you think how far the rags bent over for rooney, how far the dippers bent over for gerrard and torres, how far the arse bent over for viera and henty constantly and fabregas last year.
I think Rooney was a special case. Ferguson has always clamped down hard on any player he thinks isn't towing the party line or is
failing to respect him or the club.Beckham, Ince and Stam where all shown the door at the peak of their careers for just this type of thing.
The fact that Rooney escaped this punishment is down to a pretty unique set of circumstances.
For the first time since the late 60s early 70s City are genuine rivals. There have been murmurings that Utd were finally about to fall off their perch and relinquish the spot of tops dogs in Manchester.
Losing Tevez to us would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. Not only did this happen, they where also embarrassed by probably the most successful piece of PR that the Premier league has ever seen. The Welcome to Manchester poster hurt them more than bacon face will ever admit and the idea of us repeating that with Rooney must have given him more than one sleepless night.
Rooney coming to us would have been disastrous for Utd. Not just for what he brings on the pitch but for what it would have said about our rise and their perceived impending fall.
He had no choice but to bend over for whatever Rooney wanted and you can be damn sure it hurt. Whatever damage to Fergusons reputation the Rooney saga did it would have paled into insignificance at the damage to Utds reputation around the world had Rooney actually made the short trip into Manchester to sign for City.