Manchester United

Wayne Rooney: 'Manchester United have been in decline for over a decade'

By Ben Knapton, Senior Reporter | 07 February 2022

Rooney: 'Man United have been in decline for over a decade'

Wayne Rooney claims that Manchester United have been in decline for over 10 years and were "carried" to the Premier League title by Robin Van Persie in 2012-13.

Former Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney has claimed that the Red Devils have been declining since before their Premier League title win in 2013.

Man United's last Premier League title win came in Sir Alex Ferguson's farewell season in the 2012-13 campaign, and they have since won the Europa League, EFL Cup and FA Cup.

During his upcoming Amazon Prime documentary, Rooney has expressed his belief that the Red Devils started to go downhill following Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez's exits and are yet to recover.

"You could see after 2011; Ronaldo left in 2009, Tevez left and after that you could see it was going to go backwards before it can move forwards," Rooney said.

"That's what I could see and that's why I was asking the questions. Unfortunately, they probably still haven't recovered from that to this day. It wasn't a great team in 2013. For us to win that League title was a miracle, really, I think.

"A massive part of it was [Robin] Van Persie. I think him coming in gave everyone a lift, coming in at number nine, scoring the goals he scored. That was a bit of a masterstroke from the manager, to bring him in and have him hungry because he was a bit older as well. He really carried us that season."

Robin Van Persie scored 26 goals and set up 16 more in the 2012-13 Premier League season for Man United, with Rooney contributing 12 goals and 12 assists in league action that year.