Wayne Rooney Joins Mark Goldbridge in New Manchester United Show

Wayne Rooney is stepping into a new role this season – as the face of a Manchester United-only show alongside influencer Mark Goldbridge.

The former United captain will co-host Stick to United with Wayne Rooney, a new programme built around the club and its fanbase. He joins Goldbridge, whose two YouTube channels have become a lightning rod for online United debate.

This is the latest move in Gary Neville’s fast-growing media empire. Earlier this year, Neville bought Goldbridge’s channels, The United Stand and That’s Football, folding them into his The Overlap network. The former England defender, who launched The Overlap in 2021, has turned it from a football chat vehicle into a broader sports brand, branching into cricket and rugby.

Now comes the biggest distribution step yet. As part of a new deal with Disney+, the streaming platform will carry 50 episodes of Stick to United and 40 episodes of Stick to Football this season. Neville called the partnership one that “expands our reach without compromising our identity” – a clear statement that he wants scale without losing the raw, fan-first feel that made the channels popular.

Rooney is already a familiar face on The Overlap, regularly appearing as a pundit on Stick to Football. The new show hands him a more central role, placing one of United’s greatest-ever players directly alongside one of its most divisive fan voices.

Goldbridge – real name Brent Di Cesare – brings serious numbers to the table. Between The United Stand and That’s Football, he has more than 3.8 million followers on YouTube. His clips frequently go viral, driven by his explosive reactions and unapologetically strong views on managers, players and club decisions.

Neville clearly sees value where he once saw a problem. He has previously taken aim at club-specific fan channels, most notably ArsenalFanTV, which he branded “embarrassing” after contributors tore into Arsene Wenger following a 3-1 defeat by Chelsea in 2017. That criticism sparked a public spat on Twitter, eventually leading to Neville appearing on ArsenalFanTV to explain his stance face to face.

This time, he has gone the other way – not just engaging with a fan channel, but buying it outright for an undisclosed seven-figure sum in April and building new shows around its star.

Rooney, meanwhile, will not be short of airtime. The Wayne Rooney Show is set to return to BBC platforms this season, and he will continue in his punditry role on Match of the Day. From the dugout to the studio and now into the fan-channel arena, one of English football’s most recognisable figures is becoming just as hard to ignore off the pitch as he once was on it.