Sir Alex Ferguson absolutely right to demand higher pay than Wayne Rooney

The revelation from Sir Alex Ferguson that he used Wayne Rooney’s big new contract to extract an agreement from the Glazers that no player would ever earn more than him in 2010 sounds entirely reasonable to me.

The fact the Glazers accepted his proposal in less than 30 seconds just shows how powerful he was at that point. Fergie was bulletproof and he knew how strong the hand he had was. Fergie is probably the most intelligent person I have met in my life but he has huge confidence in himself as well. I wouldn't fancy negotiating with him.

As far as I was concerned, at Manchester United the manager was always earning more than the players. There is an unspoken hierarchy in dressing rooms, or at least there was when I was playing: the manager earns more than the players; centre-forwards earn more than defenders.

People pay money to watch goalscorers and playmakers and it is strikers who win you games. So as a defender I never had any problem with the attackers being paid more than me. And if you continue that logic, no one is more important than the manager.

As soon as a player is earning more than a manager it doesn’t bode well. It sends out the wrong signals about the club. If United hadn’t given Fergie the pay rise he requested then it would have been telling the world that Rooney was more important. And that is unthinkable.

But Rooney must have been on more than David Moyes – unless Moyes was getting in excess of £300,000 per week – and he is probably on more than Louis van Gaal as well.

It wouldn’t happen in any other industry that a manager would earn less than his subordinate. Can you imagine it happening in an office? Football is supposed to be a business these days but a player earning more than a manager is illogical.

Wages weren’t a big talking point in the dressing room in my day. We just didn’t discuss it. No one knew what everyone else was earning, although you’d probably have a general idea. As far as I am concerned, one you sign your contract you are declaring you are happy with that wage, and you can buy a nice car and get a big house with it. You get on with it.

Things have changed now, though. I don’t agree with these modern contracts which ensure certain players are always the best paid at the club: if someone comes in on a higher wage, theirs rises to match it. I’ve always thought that if you sign a contract you are happy to earn that wage for the duration. If they have signed a superstar to make the team better, why should you earn as much as him?

This is where the game has gone wrong. Players have accrued too much power. They should never be dictating wage policy or earning more money than the manager.

For Fergie, everything was about power and control and the increase in player power resulted in some clashes. Look at how he discarded players like Jaap Stam, David Beckham and Roy Keane.

You would simply never win an argument with Fergie, on the training ground or anywhere else. If you picked a fight with him you might just as well be picking up your P45 on a Monday morning. You knew not to cross the manager. There weren’t any rules written down but you knew what you could and could not get away with.