Wayne Rooney has criticised Yoane Wissa for removing all Brentford-related content from his Instagram page, describing the move as “very disrespectful”.
Newcastle recently saw a £40m offer turned down for Wissa, at the same time as uncertainty continues around the future of their star striker Alexander Isak.
On the debut episode of his new BBC podcast, The Wayne Rooney Show, the former England captain didn’t hold back.
“If I’m a Newcastle player I don’t want Isak back,” he said.
“I think if players leave football clubs – and that happens all the time – there’s a way to go about it,” he explained.
“You can’t go on strike, can’t not turn up for training and train with your team-mates. If you want to leave the club or not, you have to be there for your team-mates and be ready if needed.”
His comments came shortly before Isak – who is still pushing for a move to Liverpool – released a statement accusing Newcastle of breaking promises, saying “promises were broken and trust is lost.”
Rooney, who played for both Manchester United and Everton in the Premier League, went further by questioning whether Isak can repair his relationship with Newcastle.
“For me, I don’t think there’s any way back for Isak at Newcastle,” he said.
“I think there are cases where it can happen, but from me as a person, I don’t think I could accept them back.
“In terms of Isak’s team-mates I wouldn’t want him back.
“You can ask to leave a football club – that happens, or the club tell you you’re leaving – but you have to be professional.
“You’ve got friends in there who you play with, you have fans who are paying a lot of money to support and you can’t just walk out on it. And if they’re going to do it once, they’ll do it again.”
Isak’s standoff with Newcastle has now stretched to 19 days since the club rejected Liverpool’s £110m bid for the Sweden international.
Sources have suggested the forward believed he would be allowed to leave if a major offer came in.
Meanwhile, Wissa’s situation has also drawn criticism. The 27-year-old winger left Brentford’s pre-season camp early and was left out of the squad for the 3-1 defeat to Nottingham Forest last weekend. He has now signalled his desire to join Newcastle by deleting all Brentford-related material from his social media accounts.
Rooney believes Wissa’s behaviour reflects poorly on him.
“I think Wissa is in a worse position than Isak is purely for that,” he said.
“For Wissa to just un-follow the club and take all his pictures down of a club who’ve helped you progress as a player…
“I think these players are like kids now, or they’re very badly advised in what they’re doing because I know agents have influence.
“A lot of people have their father or the brother as an agent now. And sometimes the right thing or the right decision is not always the one from the player’s point of view. So it’s very disappointing to see his behaviour over the past few days.”
