Striker upset by lack of investment and broken relationship with Ferguson
Rooney has 20 months to run on his current £80,000-a-week contract, becoming a free agent in June 2012
Wayne Rooney has thrown Manchester United's
difficult season into turmoil by telling the club that he does not want
to renew his contract.
Rooney's decision appears to have stemmed largely from his growing sense of
disillusion about the levels of investment at United and his feeling that
players of the calibre of Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and Gary Neville are not
being adequately replaced. Sir Alex Ferguson's claims that United can
flourish by developing young players and that there is "no value"
in the transfer market have seemed increasingly tenuous during the team's
poor start to the season.
A United spokesman said yesterday that claims Rooney was unwilling to sign a
deal were "nonsense". But Rooney has 20 months to run on his
current £80,000-a-week contract, becoming a free agent in June 2012, and it
does seems that he has made the club aware in the past week that he does not
intend to sign a new one. The new deal was expected to take his salary to
around £150,000-a week, though it is understood that he has told friends
that the offer is not as good as he would like. With players such as Yaya
Touré arriving at Manchester City on huge sums, even the figure United are
offering seem less appealing. The allure of City to players at the top of
the game cannot be underestimated and they are one of the few clubs who
could pay £70m for Rooney.
These factors seem more significant than the 24-year-old's relationship with
Ferguson, though that has undoubtedly been affected by his decision to drop
the striker from his starting side in four games this season. Rooney made a
direct challenge to Ferguson's authority after England's match with
Montenegro last Tuesday – breaking with his usual resistance to speak to
daily newspaper journalists and immediately contradicting Ferguson’s claim
that he had been dropped from two games because of an ankle injury. He
started on the bench for Saturday’s draw with West Bromwich Albion.
The prospect of Rooney leaving as early as January seems highly unlikely,
since the lack of movement at that time of year would limit the amount that
the club could command for him, but a departure next summer now seems a
strong probability unless he can be talked around. He has always said he
will play in England for his entire footballing life and his seeming
willingness to leave Old Trafford – which must be tempered by the
possibility that this development is part of a negotiating ploy – raises the
question of which other clubs he would leave for. It is understood that his
North-west family ties are an important part of the consideration at a time
when he is attempting to repair his damaged marriage. Though City are the
obvious possibility, they also have a huge task in bringing down their £133m
wages bill down over the next two years to prevent Uefa banning them from
European competition under new Financial Fair Play regulations. Chelsea have
reined in their spending for the same reason.
The news contributes to the sense of Rooney’s world descending into one of
chaos, since his desperately disappointing World Cup, which was followed by
revelations two months ago about his relationship with prostitute Jennifer
Thompson. Ferguson has himself retrenched into a position of alienation with
the press, having cancelled the last three of his usual Friday press
conferences. The official reason given has been his unhappiness at the
reporting of his claim that Fernando Torres dived in United’s 3-2 home win
with Liverpool. But he may be feeling on the defensive about his most
troubled player, who has not scored in open play for United for seven
months. Oddly, Sky Sports did not ask Ferguson the obvious question about
Rooney’s omission on Saturday evening.
Rooney’s reluctance to negotiate a newdeal puts United and owners the Glazer
family in a hugely delicate position. Though the £80m sum Rooney would
probably bring in would bewelcomed by a club with a £720m debt to service,
the non-replacement ofanother totemic player after Cristiano Ronaldo’s exit
last year could reduce the overall value of the club.
It is also hard to see how United could develop without Rooney’s services,
despite his current drop in form. In short, the striker has the potential to
cause the unravelling of the club’s