Wayne Rooney has outed Carlos Tevez as 'the worst trainer' he ever played with during his time at Manchester United, branding his former team-mate an 'absolute disgrace'.
Tevez earned himself a two-year loan move to Old Trafford after helping West Ham survive relegation with a string of inspired displays in the back-end of the 2006/07 season. The Argentine, renowned for his doggedness and quality in the final third, would go on to establish himself as a firm fan favourite across an outstanding spell at the Theatre of Dreams. In that time, Tevez formed part of one of the greatest attacking units in both United and Premier League history alongside Cristiano Ronaldo, Dimitar Berbatov and Rooney.
Six trophies under Ferguson
Tevez was instrumental in helping steer the Red Devils to a total of six pieces of silverware under the tutelage of Sir Alex Ferguson, including back-to-back league titles and the 2007/08 Champions League trophy. Though Tevez would go on to tarnish his heroics at United by completing a highly controversial move to bitter rivals Manchester City, Rooney has previously gone on record naming the now 42-year-old as his favourite-ever strike partner.
However, featuring alongside Berbatov on the latest instalment of the Stick to United podcast, Rooney pulled no punches when it came to Tevez's shoddy performance level on the training ground at Carrington.
Rooney: 'Worst trainer I'd ever seen in my life'
'We were all different profiles of players,' Rooney said of Ferguson's extraordinary strike force when Berbatov joined from Tottenham in the summer of 2008. 'For instance, if you looked at Tevez in training he was an absolute disgrace. He was the worst trainer I'd ever seen in my life!
'But then as a team-mate or the manager, we would accept it because he would go on the pitch and put all his energy on the pitch which was great.'
Rooney can see similarities between Mikel Arteta's current Arsenal team and United during their golden period under Ferguson, when the club made sure to 'improve on what they have already achieved' by signing the best players around.
Parallels with Arsenal
He added: 'Where United were then with Sir Alex Ferguson, we'd just won the Premier League, we won the Champions League and then we go and sign him [Berbatov] to improve on what we've got and achieved.
'That's how successful teams continue to be successful. We've seen it now with Arsenal this year, they won the Premier League and then go and sign quality players to improve on what they've got.
'That's the place United were in but for us, as players, it would be weird if we didn't do that. We'd be thinking, "Who are we signing? Why aren't we signing anyone?", because that just keeps pushing you.
'That's why players can play so long at that level at that football club: Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes… they've seen players come and go and players who were meant to take their place.
'But it gives you that drive to say, "We've signed Berbatov now… we've got four unbelievable forwards", so you needed to be at your best.'
Though he didn't necessarily share the closest relationship with Tevez, Berbatov and Ronaldo away from football, Rooney was able gel with the trio by learning what made each individual tick.
Learning team-mates' strengths
'There was competition between us all to play,' the former United and England forward continued. 'Berbatov was quite quiet, Tevez couldn't really speak much English.
'It was interesting actually, I used to pick Tevez up from his house and sometimes we'd go to the airport for Champions League games because it was nearby, but somehow we managed to have a conversation. It was weird!
'I probably had the best relationship with Cristiano out of those three forwards in terms of having banter and stuff like that.
'But when you're on the pitch you have to recognise who you're playing with, what their strengths are, what their weaknesses are.'
