Wayne Rooney seen as Everton traitor – Sir Alex Ferguson

Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson believes Wayne Rooney is still seen as a “traitor” by Everton fans.

United visit Goodison Park on Saturday after what Ferguson admits has been a tough week following their thrashing by Manchester City last Sunday.

And he is expecting another hard game, with former Evertonian Rooney, 26, sure to receive a hostile reception.

“You know what fans are like, he’s a traitor as far as they are concerned,” he said.

“That’s never going to change.”

Ferguson added: “He’s had mixed success going to Everton. He’s scored a couple of goals in previous games and gets booed as normal.

“He got booked in one game and I took him off because there was no way I was going to give the referee an opportunity to send him off.

“That’s where the hype around the ground in terms of him getting booed every time he makes a challenge comes into it.”

Ferguson will be mindful of last season’s encounter at Goodison where a United side missing Rooney let slip a 3-1 lead by conceding two stoppage-time goals to draw 3-3 with David Moyes’ team.

The Premier League champions have not won at Goodison since 2007.

Ferguson wants his side to recover from the demoralising 6-1 defeat by Manchester City, which leaves their rivals five points above them at the Premier League summit.

And he aims to build on an encouraging League Cup win over Aldershot on Tuesday.

“It’s been a tough week for everyone. It was a bad result [against City] but we have to get over it – the fans, players, employees, staff. Everyone was involved in the disappointment,” the Scot said.

“We enjoyed Tuesday night but we need to show ourselves on Saturday.”

On the City defeat, he said: “You can analyse it as much as you want but it’s not going to do us any good. My attitude is to completely forget it – it never happened.

“What can happen is we can show Manchester United in its proper light. We didn’t do that last week but we can do that on Saturday.

“We have done that pretty well over the years, [in 1996-97] we lost 5-0 to Newcastle and won the league by 10 or 11 points.

“We have the experiences of having recovered many, many times and that’s what you have to do when you are a club like United.”

His side may be without winger Ashley Young, who has a toe injury, and could include midfielder Tom Cleverley, who impressed in midweek against Aldershot.

Everton will be missing Royston Drenthe after the Dutchman was sent off in their Carling Cup defeat by Chelsea.

Former United player Phil Neville and midfielder Tim Cahill will miss out because of injury.