Rooney: PSP battles on team bus were secret behind Man Utd’s golden era

Wayne Rooney has credited an unlikely source for helping to bind together one of the most successful sides in Manchester United’s history — the PlayStation Portable. Speaking on his BBC podcast, The Wayne Rooney Show, United’s record goalscorer said hours spent playing the shooter game SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs with teammates on flights and coach journeys played a genuine part in forging the dressing-room spirit that underpinned Sir Alex Ferguson’s dominant era at Old Trafford.

Rooney’s time at United yielded five Premier League titles and a Champions League triumph, success normally put down to Ferguson’s management and the sheer quality of the squad he assembled. But the 38-year-old suggested there was more to it than tactics and training on the training ground.

“I really believe a big part of our success was playing on the PSP,” Rooney said. “It got us communicating more.”

Five-a-side battles on the road

According to Rooney, the gaming sessions became a regular fixture of United’s travel routine, with squad members squaring off in five-versus-five matches. He named a familiar group of teammates who made up his regular gaming unit.

“We used to play it on the plane, on the team bus,” he explained. “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.”

Rooney went further, suggesting that the way each player approached the game reflected their character out on the pitch. He singled out Michael Carrick, United’s composed and understated midfield metronome for over a decade, as an example.

“Michael Carrick was a little sneaky, calm one. You’d be lying down hiding and suddenly hear a grenade bounce nearby — he’d thrown it,” Rooney said. “I was just all in, frontline of the trenches, straight in there.”

An unlikely piece of the puzzle

Ferguson’s leadership and the calibre of players he brought through or signed remain the widely accepted foundations of United’s success during Rooney’s time at the club. Yet the former England captain insists the countless hours spent gaming together, learning to communicate quickly and trust one another under pressure, should not be dismissed as a footnote.

It is a lighthearted but revealing insight into life inside one of English football’s great dressing rooms, showing how team spirit can be built away from the training pitch as much as on it.

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