Rio Ferdinand, "Situations arise in games and I think some referees have been harsh on him and quick to pull the cards out on him in certain games. Wayne has made one tackle sometimes and been booked straight away. It happens to other people sometimes. It happens to Wayne sometimes.
"You do think, 'Was that just because he is Wayne Rooney?' And maybe referees just want to do it because it is Wayne. Sometimes you think like that. But on the whole, Wayne's disciplinary record has improved a lot since he has been at United and I think that has to be taken into consideration."
It is very unfair, perhaps it is similar to a situation where a particular newspaper treated him harshly, paying big money for any anti-Rooney story regardless of how spurious. And then one of his team-mates had an exclusive deal with that same paper and wrote regular columns for it. Would he really need the money? Why else would he do it?
Moving on from that, Rio has also revealed that he couldn’t handle the constant media attention that Rooney suffers:
"I am a few years older than Wayne but I've got to be honest and say that I'm not sure I could handle all that pressure as well as he does.
"Every little incident he is involved in comes under intense scrutiny from the media but Wayne will tell you himself that he expects that because that sort of pressure is the price you have to pay for being a high-profile footballer.”