Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson has told Wayne Rooney he's not ready for the club captaincy.

Ferguson told the Observer: "Ourselves, Liverpool and Chelsea will be very close together. They will be encouraged because we have sold Ronaldo. The direction of our game will change because of that, but we will still be very difficult to beat.

"Rooney will go through the middle. Last season was a lot to do with Berbatov coming to the club and trying to understand what he was best at. You have to utilise what you have available. Some games Rooney did play wide left and in some matches it worked, but in others it was not a good position for him to be in. We will change that. He always wants to play - he sometimes thinks he is a centre-half.

"Have I toyed with the idea of making him skipper? Toyed is a good word. I don't think he is ready."