Sir Alex Ferguson feared Wayne Rooney would struggle to do himself justice at UEFA EURO 2012.
Yet again Rooney came back from a major tournament having failed to reproduce the form he shows so often for his club.
According to Ferguson, this time the problem was the five-and-a-half week gap between Rooney's final Premier League game for United and his availability for England after serving a two-match suspension.
Although Rooney scored on his comeback against co-hosts Ukraine, he failed to spark in the quarter-final defeat to Italy as England crashed out on penalties.
"I always thought it was a difficult ask," said Ferguson. "We know him better than anybody and he needs a lot of football.
"Wayne's a stocky lad. If he misses couple of games, it takes him three or four to come back and he didn't play from his last game (for United) on May 13 until the third game of the Euros more than a month later."
In fact, Rooney did manage a 37-minute friendly appearance against Belgium in between.
However, when England needed a big performance from their talisman against Italy, Ferguson detected tiredness from his outing against Ukraine.
"He didn't look as sharp as normal," said Ferguson. "It is very hard to play two big games in four days."
Fergie looks to further Welbeck growth
By contrast, Rooney's strike partner Danny Welbeck returned with his reputation richly enhanced. The 21-year-old started all four games and scored a brilliant winner against Sweden.
However, with rumours of a move for Robin van Persie still lingering, Ferguson has told Welbeck not to rest on his laurels despite also netting 12 times in his first full season for United.
"Danny can be a top player but obviously he will have to improve his goalscoring," said Ferguson.
"He got nine goals last season but if you are going to be a top striker you have to get 20 or above. I think he will do that."
The only difficulty United are encountering with Welbeck just now is the frustrating amount of time it is taking to negotiate a new contract for the striker, whose present deal expires in 12 months' time.
It had been hoped negotiations would be concluded before the new campaign gets under way.
However, Ferguson has been unable to offer any meaningful update. "It's difficult to say where we are with that at this moment in time," said the Scot.