Rooney wanted Ozil signing, says Ferguson
The former Manchester United boss has lifted the lid on contract talks with the striker, who cited the German's move to Madrid as an example of the club's lack of ambition.
Sir Alex Ferguson has revealed that Wayne Rooney questioned his decision not to sign Mesut Ozil during the summer of 2010.
The England international announced his intention to leave Manchester United that year, citing the club's lack of ambition, only to sign a contract extension days later.
And Ferguson has now claimed that the former Everton man brought up the club's failure to sign the Germany star, who moved to Real Madrid from Werder Bremen that summer, as an example.
"At that meeting, he [Rooney] was hugely sheepish. I felt he’d been programmed in what he was trying to say. The basis of his complaint was that we were not sufficiently ambitious," he wrote in his autobiography.
"My response was to ask Wayne: ‘When have we not challenged for the league in the last 20 years? How many European finals have we been to in the last three or four years?
"I told him to say we weren’t ambitious was a nonsense. Wayne said that we should have pursued Mesut Ozil, who had joined Real Madrid from Werder Bremen.
"My reply was that it was none of his business who we should have gone for. I told him it was his job to play and perform. My job was to pick the correct teams. And so far I had been getting it right."
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