It remains a taut relationship, strained by the instinct of both men to never relent.

Sir Alex Ferguson and Wayne Rooney are bound together in a kind of struggle, a competitive tension that has come to seem central to both men as much as the fortunes of Manchester United. Ferguson's career will never be reduced to the nature of his association with one player, but the pursuit of his final triumphs will be defined by the accommodations he and the England striker make with each other.

During the past three weeks, Ferguson has fined him a week's wages for not being in a fit state to train properly following a Boxing Day night out with two team-mates and their partners, dropped him for a game against Blackburn Rovers and substituted him during a defeat by Newcastle United. As Rooney left the field looking grim-faced, the two men weakly touched fingers rather than shake hands and it felt like a symbolic moment.

Days later, the player and the club released a joint statement denying a newspaper report – to be published the following morning – that United were preparing to sell Rooney during the transfer window. The story was impeccably sourced, and the inference remains that something in the understanding between the manager and the player was irredeemably broken by Rooney's public dissension and contract demands last season.

Yet he was able to marshal his formidable talents at the Etihad Stadium last Sunday, delivering the kind of committed and powerfully deft performance that was once typical and now flares more intermittently. He scored twice against Manchester City, kissed the badge on his jersey and seemed, briefly, restored to his former, less burdened self. Ferguson, too, was renewed, in the extent of his authority; his warning to Rooney afterwards that the striker exists in the same media glare as Paul Gascoigne could be seen as another psychological ploy.

"You can't always live in harmony," Rooney said in an interview with the Italian newspaper, La Reppublica. "Football is made up of conflict. The life in a dressing room, between players, between us and the coach, between us and loads of people who don't seem to matter and instead are fundamental, it's continuous confrontation. [I complained about the fine] but for reasons that I can't make public. I accepted it. But I was tense when I got back on the pitch and I believe it showed."

Ferguson signed Rooney when the player was 18 and became in many ways a paternalistic influence. His experience of nurturing young talents, and the explosive potential of Rooney's talent – qualities that transfixed English football because they seemed so effortless as well as brutally effective – enthralled him.

There remains a warmth between the two, even if it has become wary. "Sir Alex Ferguson: the greatest present that life has given me," Rooney said when asked to name his greatest influence. Ferguson felt betrayed when Rooney sought a transfer last season while questioning United's ability to remain ambitious and competitive among Europe's elite. His response was a brilliant piece of manipulation, as he forced the player and the club to the brink and so provoked the Glazers to sanction a new contract for Rooney that breached the wage structure.

The task was once uncomplicated; Ferguson used to unleash Rooney on teams, and watch them succumb to his talents. As a teenager, he seemed irrepressible, when now the complications of a life in the hyped, extravagant world of the upper reaches of the Barclays Premier League, where hubris and a lack of morality are recurring traits, have afflicted him. Yet Rooney is still able to remain in touch with that old, innocent passion.

"There are many ways to grow footballing-wise," he said. "For me, there'd be trouble in stopping learning. It might seem absurd seeing that I scored a header against City, but I could still improve my leap, in the position of my feet more than in the elevation."

Rooney described playing alongside Cristiano Ronaldo as "a learning experience" and said that he would be "ashamed" to ever say that he did not still support Everton. These seem small concerns set aside the crush of attention and expectation that he draws. Even against City, Rooney still found controversy, when he motioned for Vincent Kompany to receive a red card, irking Roberto Mancini, the City manager.

"He claimed that I encouraged the referee to send off Kompany," said Rooney. "If it were like that, every player who makes that gesture would direct the game in place of the referee and obviously it can't be like that."

In Rooney's world, and in his relationship with Ferguson, nothing is ever straightforward.