Wayne Rooney Pays Tribute to Sir Alex: "He Never Shuts Up"

Wayne Rooney, fast maturing into one of the top players in the world, paid tribute to Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson, claiming that the fiery Scot never shuts up.

"You can't help but learn from him," said Rooney. "He's done and seen so much in football, won so many important trophies that he tells us about. You can learn from that. There's someone called Willie Miller who he often speaks of, and Alex McLain or McLeish, and he's always telling us the way these players would do things, and how we should do them the same way. So, you can't help but learn."

Rooney, who will appear in his second World Cup for England in June, praised the ageless manager's tenacity: "If you're around someone every day, for hours and hours, and they're telling you football things that entire time, then, naturally, some of it is going to stick. You can try not listening, or wearing headphones, but really, that doesn't work."

Rooney also had praise for United warhorse Gary Neville, still club captain after nearly two decades at United. "Yeah, he also never shuts up."

Beckham's Injury Ends His Chance of Being World Cup Scapegoat

David Beckham's torn achilles tendon has ended his chance of being England's World Cup scapegoat. The LA Galaxy midfielder, on his second loan spell with AC Milan, has already played in three previous World Cups, but was only universally regarded as the outright scapegoat for England's failure in one of them, the 1998 tournament in France.

"You could argue I was the scapegoat in 2002," Beckham said, "with the way I pulled out of a challenge that led to Brazil's opening goal. But then David (Seaman) did what he did, and, well, there was no topping that."

Although Beckham no longer plays for Manchester United, oddsmakers, and the London tabloid press, nonetheless had him as favorite to be England's scapegoat in South Africa.



Wayne Rooney, the reigning scapegoat from 2006, is once again the bookies' favorite.