I locked Coleen out for putting Liverpool flags up - Rooney

The Merseyside derby takes place on Saturday - a fixture that runs deeper than most footballing rivalries and one that divides families, as boyhood blue Wayne Rooney knows only too well.

From a family of Evertonians, Rooney featured in the derby for the Toffees over two spells in his career and was also involved in multiple high-profile matches against Liverpool for Manchester United, scoring a winner at Anfield in 2005.

However, his wife Coleen's allegiance lies with the reigning Premier League champions and Rooney says his disdain for Liverpool led to him locking her out after she hung flags out of their old family home when the Reds lifted the league title in 2019-20.

"When Liverpool won the Premier League a few years ago I came home, I was [a player] at Derby at the time, and Coleen's got Liverpool flags up outside the house," said Rooney, speaking on his BBC podcast The Wayne Rooney Show.

"It was our old house, so outside the front door there's a little balcony thing and the flag was outside the window there, so I told her to go and get it down.

"She went up and you had to actually climb out the window to get it down, so she went up and I locked her out."

When asked how long Coleen was stuck outside for, Rooney said: "Not too long."

Rooney never won a Merseyside derby during his time at Everton, but he was involved in many top-of-the-table matches against Liverpool for Manchester United, who, like Everton, also consider the six-time European Cup winners as bitter rivals.

Liverpool's captain for the majority of Rooney's time at Old Trafford was his England team-mate Steven Gerrard, who Manchester United's record goalscorer regarded as a friend.

But Rooney spoke openly about his desire to let the Liverpool midfielder feel his presence when they played against each other.

"We were good mates off the pitch and whenever I got a chance I'm thinking, 'I'm going to absolutely smash you', and I did. He did the same to me," Rooney said.

"You wouldn't talk to him before the game and then after the game you shake each other's hand.

"If there was ever a chance he knew [I'd challenge him], and I knew if he got a chance he was going to do me, so that's what football is. You're playing for your club and there's moments and big players as well, especially a Gerrard or a [Patrick] Vieira. If you get an opportunity, you can't let that slip, you've got to take it."

Rooney also namechecked another England team-mate, Jamie Carragher, as a player who used to wind him up in matches against Liverpool.

"There were a couple of times when Carragher was in your ear. Carragher liked to referee the games and the referee used to let him. He was non-stop and he had that squeaky voice screaming down your ear," Rooney said.

"Sometimes as well, when we're winning the game, maybe 2-0 up, and I'd ask Carra what he's doing tonight. Are you going out, where are you going? And then he'd be the same and try and wind you up as well.

"Carra did it in a clever way. I was a bit too emotional at times. There were times when I'd talk to centre-backs and if the centre-backs are trying to do you, and get into you, I'd always wait until we were winning by a goal or two and tell them they were crap. That was it really."

Throughout his winless Merseyside derby career, Rooney says he hated the build-up to the city's big fixture, describing it as "horrible".

"I hated it. We didn't win many, so when you do win them, you've got to make sure you enjoy it," he said.

"The build-up to the game, the whole week was horrible. Being around the training ground and, as an Evertonian, getting ready and preparing for the game and all the staff around the training ground who are Evertonians.

"You feel sick because if you lose the game Liverpool rub it in your face.

"When I went back the second time to Everton, I had to make sure I had all the TVs turned off and there was nothing on the TVs about the game, the build-up to the game, just to try and forget about it that week. Go into the game not worrying too much about it.

"It's a massive game, and if you win there's no better feeling."