Jesse Lingard has revealed that Wayne Rooney ordered Manchester United’s academy players to not buy a flash car until they played 50 senior games for the club.
Lingard joined United’s academy at the age of seven and ended up making his first-team debut under Louis van Gaal in 2014.
The 32-year-old, who now plays for FC Seoul in South Korea, made 232 appearances for United and helped the club win the FA Cup, the Carabao Cup and the Europa League.
But since leaving United, Lingard has been forced to hit back at claims on social media that he ‘destroyed the culture’ during the latter stages of his career at Old Trafford alongside the likes of Paul Pogba and Marcus Rashford.
In an interview with MailOnline, Lingard was asked about the accusations from users on social media and revealed Rooney was keen to keep him and United’s academy graduates in line.
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‘I don’t even really go on there anymore but I did see that and just asked the guy to explain it,’ Lingard said.
‘We actually got some nice responses from other people. I love Paul to bits. He’s one of my best friends. We speak every day.
‘But I was thinking, ‘what was the culture, anyway?’.
‘With us being in the first team, you know, it’s obviously knowing the right place, the right time to do things and stuff like that.
‘But ruining culture? We only tried to make it stronger. We responded to success and we smiled and laughed and we were winning games. So that is good culture, yeah?
‘Wayne Rooney told me: “Don’t buy your first car until you’ve played 50 games.” Obviously 50 games came and I drove in a Range Rover, parked up and Rooney is like: ‘Whose is that? Have you played 50 games now?’.
‘And that was me accepted. I have never tried to be flash. Of course, if you have nice things sometimes you wanna show them. But the photographers would follow me and take pictures of me in my car every time we drove in.’
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