Wayne Rooney quit his BBC show after describing his perfect Christmas dinner. The 40-year-old will be free to enjoy his Christmas decorations over the next few days, having officially donned his football boots just under five years ago after spells with Manchester United, Everton, DC United and Derby.
Rooney, who played 559 games for the Red Devils, scoring 253 goals and providing 142 assists, turned to management after retiring from football, having previously managed Derby, Birmingham and Plymouth. But he now spends much of his time talking about football issues on the BBC’s Wayne Rooney Show. And presenter Kelly Summers, former United striker Dion Dublin, former England manager Sam Allardyce and comedian Kay Kurd all appeared on the festive edition of the show.
Rooney sat at a table with guests, wearing a Christmas jumper that poked fun at his former United teammate Roy Keane.
The front of the jumper featured Keene’s photo and the slogan: “Do you praise Santa for delivering presents?”
The conversation turned away from football and came to a devastating halt when Rooney was asked by Somers to plate the perfect Christmas dinner plate. And the former England striker chose mushy peas as his first item.
Surprised by his choice, Summers exclaimed, “First red flag for me. Sorry, mushy peas go with fish and chips.”
Director Dublin motioned for the camera to “cut” and joked that Rooney’s comments warranted stopping the show there.
But Rooney continued, “We’ve got mushy peas, we’ve got sweet corn, we’ve got carrots and turnips, we’ve got turkey. We’ve got new potatoes, but I don’t like roast potatoes.”
He was told by Summers that the lack of roast potatoes was “not okay” and Dublin was more sympathetic to that variation, as the Holmes Under the Hammer host said: “Okay, yeah, yeah, I get that.”
Rooney then added broccoli and cauliflower to the dinner plate. Then Dublin changed his tone and said to Rooney, “Those first two are weird, mushy peas and corn? That’s awful. That’s a terrible trick.”
The 2008 Champions League winner pushed back when asked: “Well, do you like mushy peas? Do you like sweet corn?” And after admitting he loves both, Dublin added: “No turkey, no gravy.”
The Kurd then interjected into the discussion and shouted, “If you’re just eating what you like, you might as well have curry.”
Rooney then announced that he would skip Christmas dinner with gravy and instead use vegetable juices to keep the food from drying out. Then Allardyce said, “Try Wayne Rooney’s vegetable juice for Christmas.”
