My toughest year at Man United was under Jose Mourinho - I knew I had to leave

Wayne Rooney has revealed he asked to leave Manchester United during Jose Mourinho's tenure, citing the struggle of not being a regular on the pitch.

As the Fenerbahce manager prepares for an upcoming battle with his old team, with the Turkish heavyweights set to welcome the Red Devils in a Europa League encounter on Thursday (October 24), memories of Mourinho's time at Old Trafford resurface.

Despite being shown the door in 2018, Mourinho's initial season with United saw him secure both the Europa League trophy and the EFL Cup. Yet, despite these successes, Rooney felt sidelined under Mourinho's leadership, even expressing his desire to exit the club to the former Chelsea manager.

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In what turned out to be his 13th year with United, Rooney found himself more often on the bench during the 2016/17 season, a stark contrast to his illustrious career in the Premier League.

Rooney, speaking on Stick to Football earlier this year, opened up about the challenges he faced during that period. He said: "Playing under Jose Mourinho was probably my toughest year at Manchester United because I was captain, but I wasn't playing. I knew when he came in and signed Zlatan Ibrahimovic I wasn't going to get much gametime as he only plays one way and that's with one striker," reports the Mirror.

"Jose started the season with myself and Zlatan up top and we had started well, but we played Norwich City away and I was terrible, the whole team was bad but I was disappointed because I had given him the chance to leave me out the team, which he did and from then,