Manchester United’s former hero Rio Ferdinand has revealed that Wayne Rooney suffered from severe anger when he first moved to Old Trafford, and that the player used to smash phones on a regular basis, as reported by the Daily Mirror.

Ferdinand returned to the Manchester club last weekend, playing there with his new side Queens Park Rangers. The Harry Redknapp-managed team fell to a staggering 4-0 loss, offering little in the way of resistance to a resurgent Man Utd side, buoyed by a significant spend in the last moments of the summer transfer window.

The defender has recently serialised his new autobiography in The Sun, and in this, he reveals how Wayne Rooney was during his early days at Man Utd.

Ferdinand wrote: “Wayne Rooney always struck me as a very angry young man, always arguing with people outside the training ground, especially on the phone.

“He seemed to fly into a rage about the smallest things and went through mobile phones like they were sweets.

“He’d smash phones up in frustration throwing them on the concrete. Other players used to laugh about it.”

Rooney has since been appointed captain of both the Old Trafford club and the England national side this summer, and is into his tenth year as a player for Man Utd.