SIR ALEX FERGUSON last night all but laid the blame for last week’s Wayne Rooney contract saga squarely at the feet of the player’s agent, Paul Stretford, as he vented frustration at the nuisance of agents in the professional game.
After watching his side – without Rooney for another three weeks as the newly-resigned forward recovers from an actual ankle injury – beat Stoke 2-1, courtesy of a double from Javier Hernandez, Ferguson seemed to suggest that the grief of his week was mostly engineered by Stretford, who felt he could call United’s bluff and earn a better deal for his client and for himself.
“It is always tough at United,” the Guardian quotes Ferguson as telling reporters. “There are always issues to deal with.
“When your top players come towards the end of their contracts you have to do something to get them a new one. They are all the same.
“You have to deal with agents of this world today, which is difficult. The players are no problem. There is no problem with players. Some agents are difficult.”
It is certainly easy to understand why Stretford might have thought it sage to push United to the limit of what they were willing to pay the forward, who turned 25 yesterday. Agents are usually privy to 15% of a player’s earnings, meaning that Rooney’s new pay deal – doubling his old earnings to £180,000 (€201,000) a week – will net him £3.51m over five years.
Adding in the various endorsement deals the player is likely to snare – which are made more likely if he continues playing in England, and with a club that also shares his kit endorsement deal with Nike – Stretford’s payout is likely to be even higher, and could conceivably stretch into eight figures.
A spokesman for Stretford’s company, Triple S Sports and Entertainment Group Ltd, declined to comment on Ferguson’s remarks.
Former United striker Andrew Cole – another former Stretford client – has told a newspaper in the UAE about his life with the notorious agent.
“I moved to Manchester and stayed at Stretford’s house as he made me part of the family,” he wrote for The National, referring to the time after he signed for the club in 1995 and before he could find a place to live.
” I thought it was a generous gesture – I later found out that he had been deducting rent from my earnings.”
