Rooney intent to bite the hand that feeds

DAVID BECKHAM, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Jaap Stam, Paul Ince.

Those are the names Wayne Rooney should be thinking about this morning as he contemplates the foolish game of brinkmanship he has just entered into with Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson.

All of those greats should still be at Old Trafford, wallowing in the title of United ambassador like Bryan Robson, working as a coach like Ole Gunnar Solksjaer or winning trophies alongside Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes. But all of them have long since gone and Rooney is in serious danger of following them out the door because, like so many before him, he got too big for his boots.