You might think Manchester United‘s success under Sir Alex Ferguson was down to their supreme talent, work ethic, or tactical nous.
But Wayne Rooney has offered an alternative suggestion.
The former striker says that playing together on PlayStation on the team bus was a substantial part of building their togetherness on the field.
A portable version of PlayStation, PSP, came out in 2004 and Rooney will be grateful as he went on to win five Premier League titles and a Champions League with the club.
‘I really believe a big part of our success was playing on the PSP,’ Rooney told his BBC podcast.
‘It got us communicating more – we used to play it on the plane, on the team bus.
Wayne Rooney says that playing PlayStation Portable (PSP) on the team bus was a ‘big part’ of Manchester United’s golden era success
Michael Carrick (left) and Rio Ferdinand (right) were two of the most passionate PSP players
‘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 even believes that the players’ footballing styles translated to the sort of soldier they’d be in the digital combat arena.
‘How you played that game reflected that player, how they play the game,’ he said. ‘Michael Carrick was a little sneaky calm one, you would be lying down hiding and you’d hear a little grenade bouncing by where he’d thrown it.
‘I was just all in, straight in, frontline of the trenches, get in there.
‘Edwin van der Sar used to get annoyed, because we’re on the team bus and there’s just shouting on the team bus all over the place where you are telling people where you are.
‘Sometimes if they have got one player left, you communicate, so you flank them, go and get them. Van der Sar used to get annoyed and move, he used to try and get as far away from us as possible!’
In 2005, Manchester United stars were asked to name what they wanted for Christmas – and Rooney only had one thing in mind.
Some team-mates gave rather anodyne answers.
Fergie led United to 13 Premier League titles, but who knows how history would have played out without the release of the PSP?
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer? ‘All I want is to score a winner against whoever we play around Christmas.’
Ryan Giggs and Roy Keane, meanwhile, gave answers about spending time with their family and wanting them to be happy and healthy.
As for Gary Neville, he said he wanted to ‘score 10 goals in a season’ – a desire which didn’t come to fruition, given he only ever scored seven in total throughout his entire career.
But a youthful Rooney? ‘All I want for Christmas is a PlayStation 2,’ he said, smirking down the camera.
