Sir Alex Ferguson’s latter years at Manchester United saw a new breed of player take to the field under his stewardship but still enjoy the unprecedented success of his famous Treble winning side and those before it.
Undoubted talent on the pitch was coupled with an unbreakable bond off it and star man Wayne Rooney has spoken on an unlikely factor that helped build that team spirit.
Speaking on his BBC podcast, Rooney explained how video games helped tie the squad together and fill the time on away trips across the country and Europe.
PSP key to United success
Rooney cited the handheld version of the PlayStation (PSP) was the console of choice for the players who would regularly battle with and against each other on long journeys.
“I really believe a big part of our success was playing on the PSP. It got us communicating more – we used to play it on the plane, on the team bus,” said Rooney.
United’s record scorer believes his teammates would echo his sentiments and feels the players learned traits from each other they could translate to game day.
“It would be me, Rio (Ferdinand), Michael Carrick, John O’Shea, Wes Brown. You have to talk, you have to tactically be right, go and revive people when they get killed and it was a massive part of our success – ask any of those players, it was brilliant,” he said.
Play like you play
Fascinatingly, Rooney claims the playing style of the players on the game mirrored their personalities on the pitch and gave some unsurprising insight on how he approached the gaming wars.
How you played that game reflected that player, how they play the game. Michael Carrick was a little sneaky calm one, you would be lying down hiding and you’d hear a little grenade bouncing by where he’d thrown it.
I was just all in, straight in, frontline of the trenches, get in there.” he said.
However, there was the odd member of the squad who wasn’t fully on board with the concept with a certain Dutch goalkeeper perhaps showing his age with his opinions on the gaming culture.
“Edwin van der Sar used to get annoyed, because we’re on the team bus and there’s just shouting on the team bus all over the place where you are telling people where you are.
He used to get annoyed and move, he used to try and get as far away from us as possible!” said Rooney.
United haven’t come close to winning a Premier League crown since that side was dismantled after the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson and Ruben Amorim’s current crop feel as far away as ever from reaching those heights.
However, a hard fought three points secured after an impressive first half against Chelsea this weekend may be the catalyst for a good run under the Portuguese head coach who continues to look for the formula that will get United back to the top.
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Conner Botterill
Conner Botterill has been with The Peoples Person for two years. A keen match-going red with degrees in Sport and Journalism and Philosophy and Psychology, Conner still believes he has a chance of making United’s first team through his 5-a-side career.
