How Manchester United legend Wayne Rooney is copying Jose Mourinho transfer plan at D.C. United

Wayne Rooney has revealed that he uses scouts from the Football Manager computer game to help him locate transfer targets for his D.C. United side - a tactic previously used by Jose Mourinho.

The former Manchester United striker celebrated a year in charge of the MLS side earlier this week, having returned to the club where he played between 2018 and 2019.

Rooney has looked to rebuild his squad over the last 12 months, but with a limited transfer budget he has had to be inventive.

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“A lot of the market is South America and we’ve done a deal with Football Manager where we give them some advertising and they give us access to the scouts — 11 or 12 of them — they use in different places across the world to help them create the game," Rooney told The Times. "José Mourinho has done something similar in the past.”

Some big names have joined Rooney in Washington over the past few months, with Christian Benteke and Mateusz Klich joining from Crystal Palace and Leeds United respectively. However, Premier League names tend to come with Premier League wages, and the former Reds frontman has also used the American 'Discovery List' system to his benefit in an unusual way.

“You don’t know about ‘discovery’ players? OK, take Erling Haaland," he explained. "We could put Haaland on our ‘Discovery List’ and it means that if he ever came to the MLS but let’s say wanted to play for one of the LA teams and not us, the LA team would have to pay Man City – and us. Because we’ve 'discovered' him! It’s