Wayne Rooney criticises ‘strange’ Man City transfer decision after Real Madrid defeat
Wayne Rooney has brande Manchester City’s decision to let Kyle Walker leave in. January as ‘strange’ following their 3-2 defeat to Real Madrid in the Champions League on.
Pep Guardiola’s side now have a mountain to climb สมัคร UFABET วันนี้ รับเครดิตฟรีสำหรับสมาชิกใหม่ in order to reach the Champions League knockout phase after they threw away the lead on two occasions against Madrid on Tuesday night.
Erling Haaland opened the scoring for City before Kylian Mbappe equalised for Madrid. Haaland netted from the penalty spot to restore City’s lead, however, Madrid were level through Brahim Diaz in the 86th minute. Jude Bellingham then score Madrid’s winner in the second minute of injury time.
City must now overturn their 3-2 defeat on aggregate at the Bernabeu next Wednesday in order to reach the last 16, where they would play either Atletico Madrid or Bayer Leverkusen.
Walker, meanwhile, is expected to start in the first leg of AC Milan’s Champions League play-off tie against Feyenoord on Wednesday night after his loan move from City in the January transfer window.
Rooney, however, believes City should have blocked Walker’s exit and feels Guardiola was not in a position to allow the England international to leave.
‘I think you see the importance of Kyle Walker over the last seven or eight years for Manchester City,’ Rooney told Amazon Prime.
‘It’s so strange to see Kyle Walker go out on loan to AC Milan.
‘Akanji’s obviously not a right-back, Rico Lewis is a young player playing in different positions, at this point in the season where Manchester City are struggling, Kyle Walker is the captain of the football club, to allow him to go on loan, for me, is really odd.’
Asked if City should have kept Walker against his will, Rooney replied: ‘Yeah… the player’s under contract and as the captain… there comes a time when players leave the football club.
‘I think at this moment in time and Man City going through this blip they’re going through and. Kyle Walker being the captain of the club and the importance of him over the last few years,. I think an agreement to say, ‘let’s wait until the summer, help us out’, maybe the. League is too far for them to reach now but they’ve still got the Champions League, help them get through the season.
‘I had it with Mourinho [at Manchester United] when I wasn’t playing with Jose Mourinho. I had the same conversation in January and he said to me, ‘stay until the end of the season, I need you to help us in the Europa League’.
‘It was hard for me to take but I respecte him for that and we shook hands and I left at the end of the season. I think that would have been the more sensible move for Kyle.’