Manchester United legend Wayne Rooney labelled some of his former Everton teammates "crap" in a new interview with a Toffees fan channel.
Rooney, who burst onto the scene with Everton as a teenager, became the Premier League's youngster ever goalscorer when he scored against Arsenal in 2002. The striker went on to play two full seasons at Goodison Park before signing for United, where he went on to win five Premier League titles, as well as the Champions League, Europa League, FA Cup and three League Cups.
Despite enjoying a productive spell on Merseyside at the start of his career, Rooney has since admitted that he was left shocked at the low standard of his Everton teammates, some of whom he had idolised as a youngster, even before his move to United.
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In an interview with Toffees TV, the 37-year-old suggested that things quickly changed after beginning to train with the Toffees first-team.
"It's mad how quick it changed," Rooney said. "For me to go in with Duncan [Ferguson], Stubbsy [Alan Stubbs], all of them who I grew up watching, to then go and play with them, train with them every day and play with them, so quickly I remember thinking 'these are crap'.
"Obviously not all of them, but some of the players I was thinking, 'what's going on here?' Then just thinking 'we need to sign better players'. I think that's the fan coming out, I couldn't believe how bad some of them were.
He added: "I remember thinking 'I'm better than all these players'. That's not disrespect to them players but some of them just weren't good enough and should never have played for Everton . I remember thinking the step up would be harder."
Rooney, who scored a total of 28 goals for the Merseyside club across his two spells at Goodison Park, captained the side when he returned for his second stint in 2017, before moving to MLS with D.C. United.
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