Wayne Rooney

[starchief]

No doubt you've heard that Wayne Rooney is refusing to discuss a new contract at Man U, whilst Real Madrid are rumoured to be offering multi-millions.

Anyone else think Sir Alex should bite their hand off for the enormous amounts being mentioned?

Rooney has been terrible for the best part of this entire year, be that domestic or international. It's going to take something dramatic for him to start playing better and that's probably a long way off. Get ?50-70M for him. He gets a new start, whilst Man U can buy someone like Benzema.

No use having a player like Rooney warming the bench but his form doesn't justify a starting place. Take the cash Fergie!

[DALNEIGHCALEY]

Madrid have already rubbished reports linking him with them .

[Scotty]

Depends on whose article you read .... but all the talk of taking him to Madrid seems to be coming from former president Ramon Calderon and not the person who really matters these days .... Jorge Valdano, who was quoted as saying

Madrid have two great strikers: (Gonzalo) Higuain and Cristiano (Ronaldo), who already showed last season that they are capable of scoring 60 goals between them. As well as that there are (Angel) di Maria and (Mesut) Ozil, who are going to help these two goalscorers. The question is, who would we move aside if we signed another striker? In January there will be neither ins nor outs. June is a long way away

[lukemackay]

man u in their financial situation would just use the money to pay a small fraction of their 500 million debt

[Scotty]

Its crazy when you think about it ...... selling him for a 'knockdown' ?50m would pay off about 10% of Man Utd's debt .... but for us it would pay our operating costs for something in the region of 10 years (or more) !!!

[RiG]

The problem is his form has been so poor since the end of last season that they won't be able to command anywhere near the amount of money they might like. Coupled with their financial position the teams who might offer to buy Rooney are the ones with the upper hand here.

Still, they've got Owen in reserve...

[AJS]

He has been under pressure since his poor performance at the world cup and the allegations of his private life havent helped him try to re capture his form.

He is a marvellous player but i think if he is too get back to his best he is in need of a change of scenery.

Flogging him for the fee required will be tricky.

[lukemackay]

Its crazy when you think about it ...... selling him for a 'knockdown' ?50m would pay off about 10% of Man Utd's debt .... but for us it would pay our operating costs for something in the region of 10 years (or more) !!!

id rather be in our financial position in all honesty there are few clubs that show how football clubs should be run and in my opinion we are one of them. DONT BUY WHAT YOU CANT AFFORD!

[starchief]

Man Utd are in no danger though. The Glazers could easily sell it off. I doubt a fee would go into the debt either. Even an American could see that if you sell Rooney, you need to replace him*.

*actually he needs replacing anyway - he's been awful since he got that minor injury oh so many months ago.

[lukemackay]

how are they not in a bad situation they are in at least 500 million pound debt mixed up with all the other stuffgoing on its gonna cost at least 700 million to sell

[starchief]

Because they are the biggest club in the world (or second perhaps). Any other team in England would have trouble selling but Man U have huge financial backers ready to buy from them already in the Red Devils. This has occurred even though there seemed little likelihood of the Glazers selling. If the Glazers decided to sell, I have no doubt there would be a queue of businesses waiting to take it off their hands - even in this current financial climate.

Chelski are a much bigger challenge. Worldwide, they're small fry (loads of Man U and Barcelona strips in Cairo for instance - very few Chelsea). Abramovic goes, Chelsea are going to struggle. No Blue Devils waiting in line for them. Man U are different (I'm not a supporter of either Man U or Chelsea by the way - just taking an interest).

[buckett]

You mean, there's ANOTHER Rooney???

[culduthel]

Go to Liverpool and swap him for Gerrard and Torres. That would be a good deal.

[Tug]

what i dont get though is this whole was he injured wasn't he thing??

fergie says he injured his ankle and alegedly rooney has said there was no injury??? WTF

something aint right if you ask me and i think this could be the start of man U's rebuilding time as Giggsy and Scholes wont be around for too much longer either

[lukemackay]

Because they are the biggest club in the world (or second perhaps). Any other team in England would have trouble selling but Man U have huge financial backers ready to buy from them already in the Red Devils. This has occurred even though there seemed little likelihood of the Glazers selling. If the Glazers decided to sell, I have no doubt there would be a queue of businesses waiting to take it off their hands - even in this current financial climate.

Chelski are a much bigger challenge. Worldwide, they're small fry (loads of Man U and Barcelona strips in Cairo for instance - very few Chelsea). Abramovic goes, Chelsea are going to struggle. No Blue Devils waiting in line for them. Man U are different (I'm not a supporter of either Man U or Chelsea by the way - just taking an interest).

yeh but the longer the glazers are owners the more debt will rack up and a court hearing would be around the corner its gonna turn out like liverpool or leeds

[Sorted]

From what I read tonight it may be that Rooney is a very cheap (in today's ridiculous terms) option for any interested party.

Apparently, the Webster Case (assume it's Andy Webster) sets precedent. Rooney, at the end of the current season, will be able to buy out his contract for the price of his annual salary believed to be ?5 million. At that price there will be a number of takers.

[culduthel]

From what was said at Ferguson's media conference it looks like Rooney is a lost cause. Time to move on for both parties. Doubt Rooney will be able to turn it on for United from now on, no matter how hard he tries in an effort to make himself look valuable to other clubs.

Big question is, would you keep playing him in the team given that he has said he wants to move on or do you focus on other players who are more committed?

Knowing Ferguson I think it will be the latter and this is what has been happening over the last few weeks.

[starchief]

He's not deserved a place in the line-up for the best part of a year. If Berbatov was playing that badly, the fans would be calling for his departure. We'll see if he ever recaptures that form. I'm not so sure.

[+DoofersDad]

Agree. As long as other players are playing well enough Fergie will pick players that want to be there. A downside of that is that if Rooney is not playing and playing well then his value to other clubs will go down. That might worry the club, it might worry Rooney, but it won't worry Fergie. Another factor is that unless Rooney recovers his best form, he will have the fans on his back - they won't stand for anything less than the best from a player who wants to leave. He also gets wound up easily and in his current frame of mind could do something stupid.

Best option is to pretend he's injured (which Fergie seems to be doing) so that his poor form is not showcased. He then needs to get shot of him ASAP. There will be clubs who will take a gamble on him - signing any player is a gamble because they can pick up a career threatening injury at any time or simply lose form. A rejuvinated Rooney in an environment he feels motivated in will have him back as one of the world's best and I am confident United will still get silly money for him. Maybe not as much as they would have got last January but still an awful lot.

[KennySim93]

Rooney signs new 5-year contract with Manchester United! http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/m/man_utd/9118602.stm

[starchief]

WTF?!?!?!?!

All he needs to do now is to stop being a distinctly average player.

[ICTPaisley]

I wouldn't have been so quick to hand him a new contract after all of that. Especially 5 years the way he has been playing recently!

[Scotty]

Well Ferguson did say he was going to sort things out yesterday one way or another so I guess he did !!!!!

now to sort out the contract of another Rooney .... this time Adam .... who is saying in the Courier that he wants to sign a new deal .

[Georgeios]

?250,000 a week, n to think all he wanted was a rope with a tyre tide at the end ;-)

[DornochCaley]

As a Football fan, Rooney should be hounded out of the game. He won't be of course. He is a joke and i don't believe for one minute that Sir. Alex will do nothing about this. He will get rid of Rooney when HE sees fit. Not when Rooney sees fit.