Wayne Rooney reveals the unlikely secret behind Manchester United’s glory years

Last Updated on 22 September 2025

Wayne Rooney has dropped a bombshell about Manchester United’s golden era, and it wasn’t just Sir Alex Ferguson pulling the strings.

According to the five-time PL champ, the secret to Manchester United’s dominance came from hours of tactical warfare. Not on the pitch, but on a PlayStation Portable.

Inside Wayne Rooney’s gaming confession and how SOCOM built a dynasty at Old Trafford

Wayne Rooney revealed that United’s stars would spend hours huddled around their PlayStation Portables, locked in five-a-side battles on the army shooter SOCOM.

“I really believe a big part of our success was playing on the PSP,” Rooney said. “It got us communicating more. We used to play it on the plane, on the team bus.”

The makeshift squads often included Rio Ferdinand, Michael Carrick, John O’Shea and Wes Brown, with each player’s gaming style reflecting their on-pitch personality.

“Michael Carrick was a little sneaky calm one… you’d hear a little grenade bouncing by where he’d thrown it,” Rooney laughed. “I was just all in, straight in, frontline of the trenches.”

Rooney insists this unlikely ritual was no laughing matter. “It was a massive part of our success, ask any of those players, it was brilliant.”

Wayne Rooney praises Manchester United’s ‘discipline’ in win over Chelsea

Talking on The Wayne Rooney Show, Rooney also reflected on United’s 2-1 win over Chelsea.

He admired the resolute performance from the Red Devils in the second half after going a man down following Casemiro’s red card.

“I liked in the second half the discipline from United.” He continued, “You know, they defended well and kept the ball in front of them.”

Chelsea were poor from the off, and Robert Sanchez made things worse with a mistimed tackle resulting in a red card.

They got a consolation goal in the second half, with Trevoh Chalobah scoring to make it 2-1 but the performance was poor. Enzo Maresca ringing a number of in-game changes didn’t help either, making three subs in the first half alone.

Rooney called Chelsea ‘poor’, and slammed them for not being up for it. “I thought Chelsea were slow in moving the ball side to side, and didn’t really try to penetrate.”

That was a massive win for Ruben Amorim and Rooney was impressed, too. “I think you have to praise Man United; I thought in them conditions as well. Showed a lot of discipline and that’s a huge win.”

United travel to Brentford for their next Premier League fixture. They will host Sunderland at Old Trafford before the international break in October and those two games could be huge in deciding Ruben Amorim’s future at the club.