why do you think his people chose this time to leak all this?
Why not just sign a contract with Real in the summer?
The club have known about it for two months, and Fergie himself said that after saturday (fans chanting for him to come on when it went to 2-2), he felt the topic needed to come out. Whether that's true I don't know, because the issue was out in the papers already and everyone was talking about it, but the club would never have let it drag on for that long.
As to why they leaked it now, I have no idea. Maybe, in fact, Fergie told him that he would be telling the press what'd been going on (for the reasons I mentioned previously), at the champions league press conference, and Rooney's team decided to leak stories that painted a breakdown in their relationship as the reason for his leaving. That didn't work, so they changed tack. Either way, Fergie says he hasn't even been willing to discuss terms for two months - not exactly negotiating. Now he's come out with a statement calling into question Fergie, his teammates, and the club's capabilities in general. Again - not shrewd negotiating, alienating yourself from the fanbase, the team and the manager.
You expect him to get a bumper deal after all that? Not a chance, I would hate for our club to pretty much beg someone to stay like that after what's been said. He goes, no player is worth that.
Ronaldo - who even we acknowledged was a bit of a twat whilst he was here - never provoked such a response from Fergie as we got the other day, the two were on great terms until the end. This is completely different.