Coleen Rooney: Wayne stopped going into Liverpool after we received abuse following his Man United move

Wayne left his boyhood club Everton in 2004 to join Man United. He was a huge part of a successful period for the club, winning the Champions League as well as the Premier League on multiple occasions.

Speaking about Wayne’s move to Man United on Sky Bet’s ‘Stick to Football’ podcast, Coleen said: “I don’t think it was an issue moving to Manchester. For him, Everton is his club, and he loved it, still does, but Manchester United is a massive club.

“All he wanted to do was win trophies. He saw players in the past stay with their childhood clubs and not go on to win anything. For him, it was hard, but he stood his ground and wanted to leave.”

The family received abuse following Wayne’s move to Manchester, and it was something that Wayne’s new manager was concerned about. There were calls to move the family away from Coleen and Wayne’s home town city almost immediately after these incidents.

“Our house got spray painted everywhere and there were smashed windows in cars. We literally took ourselves and moved because Sir Alex Ferguson said that he wanted us out of Liverpool. But it was our families that got the backlash then and that wasn’t fair. Wayne [Rooney] never went into Liverpool for a while after that, to get food or go shopping because people would just shout stuff.

“It was tough, but it was worth it for him because he went on to win and seize the lead goal scorer. We had some fantastic times there.”

It didn’t take Wayne long at all to endear himself to the Old Trafford faithful as he scored a hat trick on his debut against Fenerbahce in the Champions League. United won the game 6-2.

Coleen was immensely proud of Wayne for his debut performance, and said that he couldn’t have got off to a better start.

[On when he scored a hattrick in his debut game for Manchester United] “That was my first [Manchester United] game that I went to and I just thought after that game that he [Wayne Rooney] made the right decision here. You’ve come and you’ve proved a point straight away, that you belong here. It just went from strength to strength after that.”