Wayne Rooney names the one Man Utd player he hated training with
Manchester United legend Wayne Rooney has explained didn't like playing against teammate Park Ji-Sung in training because of one thing he used to do.
Rooney and Park were teammates for seven years and won four Premier League titles, as well as the Champions League in 2008.
The South Korean signed from PSV Eindhoven for a fee of £4 million and went on to play 205 times for United, where he is remembered fondly for a number of big-game displays.
Park was known for his incredible engine and an ability to man mark some of the best players out of the game. He played an understated role in United's success and one that record goalscorer Rooney has never been afraid to highlight.
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But while discussing him on a recent episode of 'The Wayne Rooney Show' on BBC Sounds, the England legend revealed that Park was the same annoying nuisance in training.
Rooney was selecting best midfielders he played with and the qualities they had and Park got in for the 'engine room' category.
The 40-year-old went on to talk about how Park would regularly steal possession out of nowhere and in silence.
"I'd probably play Park Ji-Sung for me and he wasn't a central midfield player - he played there now and again - but in terms of what he did and his commitment," Rooney said.
"You never had to worry. So for the two actual central midfield players who were in there, you knew that he always tucked in alongside you to make it difficult and have more more men behind the ball.
"He was just the one who never stopped. There were times in training, it happened a few times where you've got the ball and then you look up - you go to move the ball and the ball's gone!
"He'd just come and rob it off you and you wouldn't hear him coming. It was mad. We used to laugh about it."
Rooney names "the complete midfielder" he wished played for United
In the episode, Rooney praised Roy Keane, David Beckham, Frank Lampard, Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes for all the different abilities they brought to the table and also branded former opponent Patrick Vieira as "horrible" and "nasty" to play against.
But he picked Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard as the "complete midfielder" who "could do everything. Rooney saw Gerrard's brilliance up close for England and battled with him in United vs Liverpool clashes.
The former Everton star admitted he wishes Gerrard had a spell alongside him at United.
"The complete midfield player out of all of them has to be Gerrard," Rooney stated.
"He could do everything. I think he's played full-back, he's played midfield, he's played the 10.
"He can tackle, he can shoot, he can dictate the games, he can hit long passes. You see him in that period with [Fernando] Torres where he's become more the assist man for Torres.
"He had everything you want as a midfield player. I would have loved to have seen him at Manchester United."
Topics: Wayne Rooney, Man Utd
Josh Lawless