Wayne Rooney disclosed the size of the most lucrative contract of his Manchester United career: a package worth as much as £17 million per season, the equivalent of around £325,000 per week. The revelation prompted stunned reactions from Gary Neville, Roy Keane and Jamie Carragher during a recent episode of the Stick to Football podcast on The Overlap network.

The discussion compared wages across generations. Neville recalled that at his peak in 2001 he signed a contract worth £1.5 million per season, just under £30,000 each week. Keane’s landmark deal at the end of 1999 had been worth £50,000, and the former midfielder’s best ever deal a few years later was around double that, an annual salary in the region of £5 million. Carragher said his best Liverpool contract paid £3 million, while Ian Wright’s most lucrative deal was worth £1.25 million annually at West Ham United, with Arsenal paying him less.

Rooney’s £17 million-per-season figure is not believed to be the contract that followed his public questioning of Manchester United’s ambition in 2010. Instead it relates to the five-year contract he signed in February 2014 at the age of 28.

Neville argued that his own choices around contracts were driven by security and loyalty. “Money was never a focus for me. I never once worried about the money side of it,” he said. “[I thought] if I can get to the end of my career, at 35 or 36, at Manchester United, then I know I’ll be alright. I wouldn’t earn as much money signing these long-term contracts, [but] being a one-club man, being at United, was the right thing to do.

“When they offered me a seven-year contract on lower money, it was better for me than going for three or four years at higher money. I always thought in a more cautious way, if I got injured.”

Neville recalled signing what he described as the most lucrative contract of his career around 2007 for £1.75 million per season with a £500,000 signing bonus, then suffering an injury in 2008 that kept him out for a year while his deal ran on. He also noted the impact of the 1995 Bosman ruling on later negotiations and said Rooney was “right to push the club” for the best contract. Keane added: “You kept signing long-term contracts, so you never had a good bargaining position. My contract was running out a couple of times, so I got a good bargaining position. It’s not being greedy, it’s self-worth. As a manager, I used to admire the players who’d fight their corner.”