Ferguson lays down the law

Alex Ferguson has left Sven-Goran Eriksson in no doubt he will be the one who has the final say on whether Wayne Rooney goes to the World Cup.

The Manchester United boss is furious with Eriksson for claiming he would be willing to take Rooney to Germany even if he was not fit enough to play until the quarter-finals of the competition.

Barely a fortnight after he erupted in frustration at the hopes being pinned on the 20-year-old to deliver the World Cup to England, Ferguson now feels the expectation around Rooney is once more being raised to unrealistic levels.

And this time, Eriksson is the one to blame.

"We will do our best to get the boy to Germany but it will be us who will be doing the consulting," warned Ferguson when asked whether he would discuss the situation with Eriksson before deciding on a course of action.

"At the moment we have to calm people down, rather than build up people's expectation, which is what is happening at the moment. We will do our best to get the boy to Germany but if he is not fit, he is not going to go.

"Sven-Goran Eriksson saying he will take Wayne to Germany fit or not was something we didn't want to hear. Really, it is folly to suggest the boy could be out of the game for six weeks, then two weeks later go and play in the World Cup quarter-final. That is a wild dream.

"All the other players will be extremely fit because they will have been playing and training for the previous two months. Players who are performing on that stage have to be 100 per cent fit."

Ferguson has tried to reach Eriksson on a number of occasions since Saturday to speak to the Swede personally but has failed to get through.

He has promised Eriksson weekly updates, although given Eriksson is due to name his squad next Monday - and then head off to a training camp in Portugal a week later - and the timescale does not look great.

With Ferguson anxious that Rooney is fully fit for the start of next season, it appears Eriksson will head into his swansong as England coach without his best player.

And, if United's failure to overcome Middlesbrough without him at Old Trafford last night is any guide, Eriksson is facing a monumental problem trying to replace him.

Even with strikers of the class of Louis Saha and Ruud van Nistelrooy in their line-up, the hosts lacked the guile to grab the winner which would have sealed an automatic place in next season's Champions League group stages.

Instead, United must now beat Charlton on Sunday to ensure they stave off the challenge of Liverpool for the runners-up spot, with Van Nistelrooy hoping to atone for the penalty miss which brought a reaction from his manager which hardly suggested the pair are presently seeing eye-to-eye.

"It was disappointing because we expected Ruud to score," said Ferguson. "But it was not a good penalty. He has missed probably half a dozen in total and that was a bad one."