AS HE pondered another lonely Saturday afternoon in a season during which he will miss six of the first seven matches for club and country because of indiscipline on the pitch, Wayne Rooney’s inglorious start to the campaign continued yesterday with the revelation that David Moyes, the Everton manager, is to issue legal proceedings against his former protégé.
Moyes’s complaint stems from a series of allegations made by the Manchester United and England forward in his recent autobiography, My Story So Far. Moyes has already issued proceedings against the Daily Mail newspaper over an article containing Rooney’s comments under the headline: “Moyes forced me out” before the book’s publication last month. Moyes’s solicitor, Mel Goldberg, confirmed yesterday that the Scot is issuing separate claims for defamation against both Rooney and the book’s publishers, Harper Collins.
Moyes is furious that he was blamed in the book for Rooney’s controversial transfer from Everton to United in August 2004 and specifically for a “breach of confidence” after the player cited his unhappiness at newspaper revelations about his private life when informing the manager of his desire to leave Merseyside.
Moyes believes that the claims made in the book raise unwarranted criticism of the man-management abilities that he has shown during his time in charge of Everton and Preston North End, his previous club.
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The parting of the ways was acrimonious, but, with two years having since passed and with Rooney having sought to gloss over the reasons for his departure from Everton, Moyes has been taken aback by the ferocity of the criticism in the book and in particular the player’s version of the breakdown of their relationship in the weeks leading up to the transfer.
Moyes and his lawyers are also expected to challenge the veracity of two other claims from Rooney — one that the manager “accused me of breaking his CD player” and the other that Moyes accused him of “eating too many f***ing McDonalds”.
“There are couple of comments but I think the main one is ‘Moyes forced me out’,” Goldberg said in an interview with BBC Radio Five Live. “That was a million miles from the truth.
“[Moyes has] taken action against the newspaper, the Daily Mail, where the article appeared. The other action will be in relation to the book, so that is being dealt with separately and proceedings will be issued against the publishers plus Wayne Rooney, which haven’t been issued at this time.
“There was an allegation in the book that Rooney said things to David Moyes in confidence and that the next day they appeared in the Liverpool Echo. Rooney claimed wrongly that this was due to a breach of confidence [from Moyes]. I don’t want to go into the whole legal case on the radio, but David Moyes is a very confidential person and wouldn’t leak stories. In fact, he tried to keep several stories out of the press.
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“If you accuse a manager of being dishonest and breaking confidences, that may affect what other people think of him, including other players and the supporters. He [Moyes] feels very badly about that.”
Moyes, who is believed to be in Scotland for the weekend, could not be reached for comment, while Everton said that it was a private matter on which the club would not express and opinion. A spokesman for Rooney was unavailable.
Rooney’s criticism of Everton and their manager is certain to inflame passions in an already fractious fixture as he prepares for his next meeting with his former club, at Old Trafford on November 29, but Goldberg suggested that Moyes was baffled by the comments, suggesting that the tension between the two men had eased over the past two years.
“They’ve had a very good relationship,” the solicitor said, “and David Moyes was very surprised to see that headline on the back of the Daily Mail, very surprised and very disappointed.”
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Wayne Rooney is not the only football figure to get in trouble after picking up the pen
Roy Keane
The former Manchester United player admitted that three years of pent-up anger at Alf-Inge Haaland was channelled into a deliberately high challenge on the Norwegian that earned a red card. Keane, who had taken exception to being accused of faking an injury, was banned for five games by the FA
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Jaap Stam
The defender claimed that Sir Alex Ferguson had tapped him up before taking him to Manchester United. He also criticised Gary and Phil Neville. Ferguson quickly sold him to Lazio, although the United manager insisted that the transfer was for football reasons
David O’Leary
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The manager lost his job after writing Leeds United On Trial, a book that drew criticism from those who felt he was cashing in on the aftermath of the Jonathan Woodgate and Lee Bowyer trial
Glenn Hoddle
The former England coach revealed the secrets of the dressing-room from the 1998 World Cup finals, a move that perhaps helped to secure his departure a few months later after ill-advised comments about the past lives of disabled people
Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink
The Charlton Athletic forward was charged by the FA after claiming that Chelsea players received a bonus after their win over Arsenal in the 2004 Champions League quarter-final. He denied the charge