Rooney slams former manager

Rooney, who joined United in 2004 for a fee estimated at 25 million pounds, made his first-team breakthrough at Goodison Park as a teenager.

"I would have gone almost anywhere just to get away from David Moyes. If no-one had come in I would have joined Newcastle," Rooney wrote in My Story So Far, serialised in the Daily Mail.

"To me he appeared overbearing; just wanting to control people. I suppose being young and confident and playing for England at 17, I wasn't bothered about upsetting him or answering back."

Rooney, a product of Everton's youth academy, made his first-team debut as a 16-year-old in 2002 and two months later, five days shy of his 17th birthday, became the Premier League's youngest scorer (since surpassed by James Milner) when he netted a superb match-winner against Arsenal.

His England debut followed in February 2003, a rapid rise to fame that Rooney said irked the Everton manager.

"There was only one person who seemed a bit upset and envious of what was happening to me - and that was Moyes," said Rooney.