PlayStation game was key to Man Utd success – Rooney

Wayne Rooney claims that the communication they built up while playing video games on the team bus contributed to Manchester United’s success during his playing days.

The former United, Everton, and England international said he and his team-mates would play five-a-five in the PlayStation Portable army game SOCOM during a statement on his BBC podcast The Wayne Rooney Show.

Under Sir Alex Ferguson, Rooney won five Premier League titles and a Champions League, “I really believe a big part of our success was playing on the PSP,” he said.

We used to play it on the plane and the team bus, and it increased our communication.

Rio Ferdinand, Michael Carrick, John O’Shea, and Wes Brown, would be the winners. Ask any of those players, it was brilliant because you have to talk, you have to be tactically right, go and revive people when they are killed.

Rooney claims that the playing styles of his team-mates on the video game were representative of what they were like on Old Trafford’s pitch.

He continued, “How you played that game reflected that player, how they played the game.” You would be lying down hiding and you would hear a small grenade bouncing past where Michael Carrick had thrown it because he was a little sneaky, calm person.

“I was just all in, straight in, frontline of the trenches, get in there”

However, Dutch goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar would beg to differ.

Because we’re on the team bus and there’s just shouting on the team bus all over the place where you’re telling people where you’re, used to get irkier, said Rooney.

On his most recent podcast, Rooney also discussed West Ham’s issues and suggested the Hammers should “build a good foundation” rather than jump between managers because Graham Potter is increasingly under increasing pressure.

Multiple sources told BBC Sport that Potter is facing significant internal scrutiny as the club is now considering managerial options following Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to Crystal Palace.

Julen Loptegui replaced him in January, but he has lost 14 of his 25 games and drawn 5. The 50-year-old has won just six of those victories.

Former manager Slaven Bilic and former Wolves manager Gary O’Neil are also thought to be candidates to replace Potter, according to reports that Nuno Espirito Santo, who was recently fired by Nottingham Forest.

It would be West Ham’s third appointment since David Moyes left in May 2024 if they made the switch.

Rooney said, “It takes time to get players out, get players in, and then the manager doesn’t get the results, and then they’re gone and you’re back to square one.”

West Ham have lost four of their five league games this season, defeating only Nottingham Forest, and lost to Wolves in the Carabao Cup.

Only West Ham’s tally of 12 goals and their joint-fifth lowest scorers with five have been conceded by them, just behind only Rock-bottom Wolves.

The Hammers, who are 19th in the Premier League, will face Everton on Monday, September, to reunite with Moyes.

“Brentford and Brighton have a clear way of playing,” Rooney said, adding that the clubs have chosen the managers to succeed because they have established their own philosophy, regardless of the manager they bring in, and they adhere to it, which is why you’ve seen a rise in their clubs,”