WAYNE ROONEY gave a passionate speech to his DC United squad ahead of the 2023 season – and vowed not to finish “bottom of that f***ing league again”.
The Manchester United legend, 37, was appointed manager of the MLS side last summer.
But he could not prevent the Washington-based club from finishing bottom of the Eastern Conference as they failed to win any of their final six league matches.
And Rooney, who spent two years with DC United as a player, is determined to improve their position in the MLS.
Speaking to his players in a video uploaded to DC United’s YouTube channel, he said: “How are we going to improve day to day? There’s different things: of training sessions, of games, game management.
“The lads who were here last year, you already know, you heard me talking about it all the time. The f***ing mentality every single day has to be right. That belief every single day has to be right. Cos if it’s not, you might as well go home now.
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“That mentality has to be at a f***ing high level for us to perform every week.
“It’s a tough, tough league. There are some very good teams in the league. And we have to compete this year. We have to have that f***ing desire to be successful.”
The MLS gets underway at the end of February, with DC United kicking things off at home to Toronto – who finished second bottom last season.
Rooney went on to add: “Walking around in England, even went to Dubai for a couple of weeks on holiday, and people come up to me and say: “Oh how’s America? Is it nice? Football is different over there’.
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“No it f***ing isn’t. Football is football.
“We have to stay together as a group. So just a reminder, if we stay together, we’re a f***ing good team.
“We’ve got time now to work on how I want to play, how we want to evolve as a team, improve and how we want to get better. How we want to be successful. Because there’s no chance I’m finishing bottom of that f***ing league again.”
And Rooney, who has players such as Christian Benteke and Ravel Morrison in his squad, finished the lengthy speech by calling for his squad to have the belief to succeed this season.
He said: “There’s a lot of history at this club. It’s the most successful in the MLS. We need to get back to that. And we can. I think we will.
“But it’s on you to do that. You need to believe in yourselves. It’s the most important thing.
“Believe in yourself as an individual, believe in your team-mates and believe in yourselves as a group. And you can do that.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
