Ancelotti started it last week with his observation that an injury to Rooney could shatter Manchester United’s hopes of winning the Premier League this season.

I suppose it didn’t take too much imagination from our lovely press to translate this into “Ancelotti: United Are A One Man Team”.

This is a theme that has now been taken up by others but we’ve heard it all before.

For the last few seasons, we had Ronaldo and we were a “one man team” – without Ronaldo, we would be nowhere (and this despite the fact that Rooney was also playing for us at the time!)

Before Ronaldo, we had Van Nistelrooy who banged in more goals than either of them. Perhaps we were a “one man team” then too?

I think it is fair to say, however, that is he the main man at United at the moment and he was the main man even when Ronaldo was here.

Everyone loves Rooney because his skill and ability are backed up with a tremendous work ethic and a true commitment to the cause.

We all know that Rooney is an Everton man but he has become an honorary Mancunian during his time at Manchester United. He embodies the spirit of Manchester United just as much as anybody else.

Sir Matt Busby was Scottish. Sir Alex Ferguson is Scottish. Roy Keane is Irish. Ryan Giggs is Welsh. Sir Bobby Charlton is a Geordie. Steve Bruce is a Geordie. Eric Cantona was French. I could go on and on. These people from such disparate places took Manchester United into their hearts and we took them into ours.

Ronaldo never quite felt like “one of us”. He came to United from Sporting because he recognised it as a step up, a place to improve himself as a player and put himself onto a bigger stage. He made no secret of his dream to play for Real Madrid and the better he played for us, the closer his dream moved towards reality.

The difference between the two in the eyes of the supporters was confirmed to me when I was at the Champions League semi-final against Arsenal last season.

Rooney attempted a fairly ambitious long ball to Ronaldo. It didn’t quite come off. Ronaldo turned in the direction of Rooney and gave him an angry verbal blast. I don’t think he actually finished whatever it was that he started to say because the crowd immediately went berserk at Ronaldo.

I obviously couldn’t hear what every supporter in the stadium wes shouting but certainly those around me in the Stretford End were screaming things along the lines of “Don’t you dare have ago at him!” (the language was slightly more colourful than that).

There was no doubt in the minds of the supporters just who, exactly, was the main man at United.

It was obviously very nice to have both Ronaldo and Rooney in the team but if we had to lose one of them, I would have chosen Ronaldo without a second thought. I suspect that this was the view of the vast, vast majority of United supporters at the time Ronaldo left and is almost certainly the view of 100% of them now.

No, we’re not a one man team and anyone who suggests this has obviously not been watching us this season.

But I do agree with what Ancelotti said in that if anything were to happen to Rooney, we would have a problem.

This is the problem when you have the best player in the Premier League playing for you. It’s quite a nice problem, really.