Alex Ferguson: Wayne Rooney saga shows need for experienced successor

Sir Alex Ferguson has cited Wayne Rooney's contract dispute with Manchester United as a reason he feels it imperative the club employ an experienced manager as his successor.

Ferguson acknowledged that Rooney's aggressively pitched attempt to leave the club, followed by a remarkable change of mind and eventually the signing of a new five-year contract, had cast football in a bad light and he attributed his ability to handle the pressure to his own vast experience.

"I don't think Manchester United could ever go down the road of having a young manager, to be honest with you," he said. "It's a job that needs a lot of experience at the top end of the game. We have the benefit of my 24 years at the club, so fortunately that's the way we could deal with it.

"At Manchester United, you can never be surprised. There is always something happening in the club and there are always issues to deal with. I don't think you can deny we got a lot of publicity that we didn't enjoy, but you have to deal with these situations and I think we dealt with it very well.

"I've got the benefit of having been at the club for such a long time I have experienced a lot of things.It's big enough dealing with winning matches without the publicity attached that doesn't always put football in a good light.

"We always try to always be a good part of the game, and all the right things about the game, but for a couple of days last week, there was unfortunate information, you know? To be manager of our club, you have to have someone strong who can deal with all these issues."

Ferguson, speaking to the New York-based satellite radio station Sirius, appears to hold Rooney's agent, Paul Stretford, partly responsible. "The modern trend with agents is that they are never criticised by journalists because that is their feeding foundation and where they get all their stories and complete knowledge of what is happening with a lot of players. That was the area where we were handicapped."

Ferguson will field a young and experimental side against Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Carling Cup tonight, his priority being Saturday's league game at home to Tottenham. "We have thrown away some games, like a two-goal lead at Everton, missing a penalty at Fulham; we've thrown away points. But we are still in there and there are 29 games to go.

"There are a lot of twists and turns to run yet. At the moment Chelsea have done very little wrong but if you look at our programme, we have had a much harder programme than the rest. We've been to Everton, Sunderland, Stoke, Bolton - all these difficult places where nobody enjoys going, but we've got them out of the road now. The result at Stoke [a 2-1 win on Sunday] has had a galvanising effect on the club but we have to motor on now."