Wayne Rooney left Manchester United in 2017 as a club legend. 

The striker spent 13 years of his career at Old Trafford, becoming the Red Devils' all-time top scorer and winning 11 major honours.

But things could have been very different, had he got his way at the conclusion of the 2012/13 season. 

Rooney handed in a transfer request around the same time that Sir Alex Ferguson retired - which was just a few months before David Moyes formally took over. 

He was unhappy with his role at United and was reportedly interested in joining a Jose Mourinho led Chelsea.

The move never materialised of course and over six years later, Moyes has now revealed what the Gazers told him after Rooney handed in his request. 

"I have to say I learnt a lesson a little bit from the owners of Manchester United at that time," the Scottish manager told beIN Sports, per the Mirror.

"I think Wayne eventually put a transfer request in, and the owners of Manchester United turned around and said, 'You don't think we listen to transfer requests?'

"'We've had far better players, many better players put in transfer requests. We tell them when we want them to leave Manchester United'."

Ouch. Once it was made clear to Rooney that he was not going to get the move, he signed a new deal the following season. Moyes went on to praise the striker for his professionalism too. 

"Wayne didn't have it in any way against me, I think he had grievances from the prior regime in the way things went on at the time. I think he felt it was time for him to move on," he continued.

"I remember him in pre-season before we came to Asia, and his training was great. But I did say to him, 'how are you going to train Wayne? Are you for it, or do you want to train with the young boys?'

"He says, 'no, I'm fine'. And to be fair, every minute of it he was very good."