David Moyes would follow Wayne Rooney everywhere because of Man Utd transfer fear

Former Manchester United boss David Moyes has admitted the covert tactics he deployed in a bid to keep Wayne Rooney at Everton.

Moyes, 61, was do desperate to keep hold of his gem that's he's admitted to shadowing the young star without his knowledge. The ex-Everton boss was determined to shield his prodigy from both the prying eyes of top clubs and the media, going to great lengths before Rooney's eventual transfer to Old Trafford in 2004.

Rooney - who made his first-team debut for Everton at just 16 - quickly attracted attention from the giants of English football. However, Moyes was not ready to concede defeat and took to stalking his own player to keep control over the situation.

READ MORE: David Moyes admits he 'regrets' Wayne Rooney treatment which he copied from Sir Alex Ferguson

READ MORE: Manchester United have five academy youngsters who could make debuts next season

"Wayne probably doesn't know - well, he might know - I used to go everywhere Wayne was playing, nearly without him knowing," Moyes revealed on The Rest Is Football podcast (via the Liverpool Echo). "Made his debut for England, I was there. Without him knowing.

"When he broke his metatarsal, I was over in Portugal for the games out there [at Euro 2004]. And the papers were saying, 'Wayne is meeting on a yacht,' and I was f*****g raging. I was saying, 'Don't let anyone get near him. Don't let anybody near him.' Because I really wanted to keep him. You've got to remember, I was a young manager [at Everton]."

The Scot's efforts reflect his ambition to build something at Everton and use Rooney as the bedrock for his team. In the end, though, the allure of Old Trafford proved too tantalising.

There's no one-size-fits-all approach for managers when it comes to maintaining the loyalty of their playing staff players. However, it's understandable Moyes would have been somewhat desperate to keep Rooney - whom he later managed again at United - given a club like Everton doesn't often produce such a talent.

In search of guidance on how to handle the situation, he turned to former colleagues and peers. Interestingly, it was Rooney's future boss at Old Trafford, Sir Alex Ferguson, who served as a sort of inspiration in dealing with the predicament.

"The only thing I could remember was Charlie Nicholas at Celtic was a little bit like that. How did [then-Celtic manager] Billy McNeill control Charlie," he added. "And the other one was Giggsy and Fergie. How did Fergie controlled Giggsy at that time? And obviously, Alex did it with an iron rod, which I think Scottish managers had in abundance at that time.

"And I don't think it suited Wayne that I was like that because I was saying make sure you're not doing that. And there are bits of it, you do look back and regret. But that's life. He changed his agent - and he's got a really good agent in Paul Stretford, who he's had for years - before you know it, we were getting Coca Cola adverts and something else coming in, and I didn't like it."

Despite the efforts, Rooney eventually signed with United in 2004 for a fee of £25.6million and became the top scorer for both the club and country. His first senior manager, however, did not lose his services to a Premier League powerhouse without a fight.