VIDEO: Ferguson confirms Rooney wants to leave Manchester United

As daytime TV goes it doesn’t get much more dramatic than this. After all the rumours and speculation swirling around Old Trafford, Sir Alex Ferguson confirmed today in a sensational press conference that Wayne Rooney has given notice of his desire to leave Manchester United.

“It’s a shock,” said Ferguson, in a truly gripping press conference. “I am terribly disappointed by the news because we can’t understand it. We’re bemused because we can’t understand why he would want to leave a club this successful.”

In the press conference, given ahead of United’s Champions League game against Bursaspor, Ferguson looked visibly disappointed and hurt by Rooney’s desire to leave, and was keen to stress there had been no falling out between the two.

“I’ve never had an argument with Wayne at any time. He did have an injury and he confirmed it himself,” he said. The relationship between Ferguson and Rooney has supposedly been strained since newspaper revelations about Rooney’s private life emerged after the World Cup, but Ferguson was keen to emphasise there had been no disagreement.

Many journalists often complain about Ferguson’s elusive, stand-off nature at press conferences – if indeed he gives them at all, prone as he is to media bans. Well they certainly got their money’s worth here, in a refreshingly honest, dramatic press conference in which he laid it all bare.

This story ends with Wayne Rooney being presented in a Manchester City shirt, doesn’t it?

Manchester United, Sir Alex Ferguson, Wayne Rooney