John Giles believes the recent controversy surrounding Wayne Rooney would not be seen as a big deal if he had been in good form of late.
The Manchester United and England captain apologised to his international manager Gareth Southgate after tabloid photos were printed of him celebrating their win over Scotland.
The England record goalscorer had broken no rules and John feels the media furore is a result of his recent form.
"I think what's happened at the moment with Rooney, he's not everybody's favourite player by any means and there's a lot of talk about him being left out of the team," John said as he spoke to Off The Ball's Kevin Kilbane.
"He's on a downer in public opinion. There's no doubt about that because he's not playing as well as he should be playing. But you know players as well as I do. I've known players who would've done what Rooney did if he wanted a few drinks.
"And if he was playing well, there'd be nothing made of it. I think it's bad judgement on his part to put himself in the position of going into a wedding in with strangers and having a good few drinks and having his photograph taken, particularly in the time that's in it - not playing well, there's a lot of speculation about him leaving.
"So I think his judgement on going to have a few drinks at the wedding was wrong."
Next up for Rooney at club level is Manchester United against Arsenal at Old Trafford and John looked ahead to a fixture in which Jose Mourinho is under more pressure than Arsene Wenger.
With varying degrees of doubt regarding Rooney, Paul Pogba and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, John feels that trio not living up to the manager's expectations is one of the issues Mourinho must contend with.
"That's why Mourinho has problems with three players who he assumed would be putting them top of the league. He's got to sort that out and that's a big sort out. So of course there's pressure on him," he said, adding that a suitable position must be found for Pogba.
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