Sir Alex admires Rooney's drive

Sir Alex Ferguson believes Wayne Rooney is driven to score goals regardless of trying to fill the gap left by Cristiano Ronaldo.

The boss tells the new issue of Inside United: “I don’t think he looks at it that way (replacing Ronaldo's goals). Wayne always wants to do well and play well.

“The boy’s got a real hunger and drive. He has so much energy that sometimes he overdoes it in the sense that he wants to use it all; he’ll drop into midfield or go outside left. But he’s young, and young players sometimes want to spend all their energy on the pitch.

"If he concentrates like he did (in the match) at Wigan and spends more time in the central areas rather than the wide positions then he will get goals. There’s no doubt about that.”

Sir Alex picks out a volley against Newcastle in April 2005 at Old Trafford as his favourite Rooney goal so far, now that the striker has scored more than 100 for the Reds.

“His volley against Newcastle takes some beating," says Sir Alex. "It came totally out of the blue. He should have had a foul a minute before and the referee didn’t give it, so the anger in him was so high that he tried to burst the ball!”

Although Rooney has notched his first century for the Reds, Sir Alex is not sure he will overtake Sir Bobby Charlton’s club record.

“It’ll be very tough. Sir Bobby’s record is 249, so at this stage of Wayne’s career he’ll have to do very well to get anywhere near it.”

Gill feels insulted by Le Havre's Pogba slur

Manchester United chief executive David Gill has criticised Le Havre for their public condemnation of his club's transfer tactics over the signing of teenage star Paul Pogba.

Gill said that the Premier League champions will not allow themselves to be insulted by the Ligue 2 club over claims which he insists are completely unfounded and false.

"It's not intimidation but they can't insult us," Gill said at a meeting of the European Clubs Association. "We are not intimidating Le Havre, we have no intention of intimidating Le Havre, they can take whatever action they fell appropriate.

"We have done everything by the book, we are confident in that, they can take whatever action, we won't be insulted by Le Havre.

"It's an insult by Le Havre to suggest that Manchester United and employees of Manchester United have paid the parents and bought the player's parents a house.

"We will not accept the good name of Manchester United being trawled around Websites and the press saying we have done these things we are not allowed to do.

"If they want to take action, they can take action, we will defend our case in the football bodies, we are very comfortable about doing that."

Le Havre this week claimed United had offered the player's parents a number of inducements to get the player to sign for them. And United hit back by threatening legal action of their own should they continue to make such claims.

"Manchester United has written to Le Havre to put it on notice that action will be taken if such allegations are repeated in relation to the transfer of Paul Pogba," United said in a statement.