an invariable admission of guilt. The court case came soon after football's "roasting" and rape allegations at Chelsea earlier that year and served only to exacerbate their situations and affected their reputations off and on the pitch at the club, while an incident involving Fowler and McManaman and three other players deliberately missing the team bus at Leicester also did not go down well with the fans, manager and media. In 2004, McManaman was linked to the MetroStars, who confirmed that the club were interested in him. However, they eventually decided to relinquish their bid stating that "MLS clubs were keen to lose the reputation that top stars only arrive to play in America for a final swansong in their careers". McManaman played for City for only two seasons and following Kevin Keegan's resignation in March 2005, never played another game for the club. Keegan's replacement, Stuart Pearce, released McManaman on a free transfer on 20 May. In 2021, McManaman was classed by Manchester Evening News as one of Manchester City's five worst free transfer signings of all time. Retirement McManaman retired from his playing career after being released by Manchester City in 2005. He ended his career across all his three clubs with a total of 566 appearances, scoring 80 goals. In early 2006, McManaman nearly came out of retirement to sign for the Hong Kong Rangers, a club owned by an admirer of his football, Carson Yeung, but the deal fell through due to McManaman's recurrent injuries which scuppered his fitness test. International career McManaman is sometimes described as an enigma at international level for England. Excluding Terry Venables and Kevin Keegan, every England manager decided to utilise McManaman's talents sparingly. McManaman was capped 37 times for England and scored three goals. England lost only three times in the games that he played; these included the UEFA Euro 1996 penalty shootout defeat to Germany at Wembley in 1996, and the opening day defeat against Portugal at UEFA Euro 2000. Over his 11 years as an England international, McManaman played in many tournaments such as UEFA Euro 1996 and the 1998 FIFA World Cup. UEFA Euro 2000, held in the Netherlands and Belgium, was McManaman's last major tournament for England, despite pressure from the press, fans and team-mates, including Zinedine Zidane, to include him in the final squad for the 2002 FIFA World Cup. 1990–93: England U21 McManaman made