Rooney criticized Mourinho for ignoring his advice, which led to a decline in Manchester United's standards! Yet, surprisingly, the main topic was about clothing.

Manchester United icon Wayne Rooney reminisced about a talk he had with manager José Mourinho before the 2017 League Cup final, which caused him to doubt the club’s standards. It’s widely known that United clinched the title with a 3-2 victory over Southampton at Wembley, while Rooney remained on the sidelines and just lifted the trophy.

Although Rooney became Manchester United’s all-time top scorer and continued as club captain during Mourinho’s tenure, being relegated to a substitute role clearly displeased him, and he left the club after one season. He expressed dissatisfaction with Mourinho’s management style, especially before the Wembley final, when he directly confronted the coach about players’ casual pre-match attire.

Rooney recalled: “I remember for the League Cup final, the players were wearing suits but paired with bright yellow trainers or similar gear. I approached Mourinho and said, ‘Listen, I’ve spoken to the players, now you need to address them as well and make sure they maintain proper standards. We can’t have this happening at a Wembley cup final.’”

However, Rooney’s advice was dismissed by Mourinho, who himself did not dress as Rooney suggested. Rooney said, “He replied, ‘Yeah, I’ll talk to them.’ But when we were about to leave, I saw José wearing a zipped-up jacket with no tie. I thought, what’s the point? If he doesn’t care about this, why should I bother? I think nowadays people just wear whatever they want — they have their phones, hats, and trainers, and that’s just how it is.”

During Sir Alex Ferguson’s era, Manchester United typically wore custom suits bearing the club crest before big matches. But not every coach cared about these details; Mourinho never enforced strict dress codes at any of his clubs. One iconic moment was when Mourinho famously celebrated Porto’s Champions League win over Manchester United at Old Trafford wearing a coat and running wildly around the pitch.

Rooney also noticed that Chelsea’s dress code was quite casual under Mourinho: “When you watched Chelsea games back then, the players not on the matchday squad would sit on the bench wearing their own clothes, which I thought looked a bit scruffy. At United, everything was very professional; even if you weren’t in the squad, everyone wore the club’s formal attire. That professional atmosphere was very clear, but now it’s all gone. I think every club is like that nowadays — people just wear whatever they want. But I always felt the old United looked really professional.”

Considering Rooney’s current physique and image, some fans find it ironic that he criticized Mourinho’s lack of tidiness in dress.

Many senior figures at Manchester United apparently share Rooney’s view. British media revealed that when Mourinho attended the Munich air disaster memorial in 2018 wearing a hoodie and trainers, some were shocked.

In contrast, under Louis van Gaal and Ole Gunnar Solskjær, the club strictly enforced formal dress codes for players at important matches, a policy Rooney strongly supported. When Solskjær took charge, he immediately mandated that United players wear the club’s official suits for all matches, aiming to restore the principles upheld during Ferguson’s era.

However, current Manchester United manager Ralf Rangnick follows Mourinho’s example and also pays little attention to players’ attire. United players often travel to matches in sportswear, and Rangnick himself rarely wears a suit on the bench. The only exception was last season’s Europa League final, when Rangnick donned a suit, but the team still lost 0-1 to Tottenham.