Wayne Rooney has moved to dismiss speculation that he deliberately removed the term ‘Manchester United player’ from his Twitter account, but he didn’t say a whole lot besides.
The future of the Manchester United striker is in some doubt at present after reports emerged earlier this week that he recently asked to leave the club, which would be the second time he expressed those sentiments in three years.
The fact that Alex Ferguson has since revealed his intention to retire at the end of this season and will be replaced by Rooney’s former manager David Moyes may have an impact on his situation but there is still a chance he may leave United in the summer, with Chelsea, Bayern Munich and PSG thought to be interested in his signature.
Amidst all the speculation regarding Rooney’s future, reports emerged that he had changed the wording of his Twitter bio and deliberately removed the words ‘Manchester United player’, speculation the 27-year old was very keen to address last night.
In a statement on his personal website, which he posted a link to on his Twitter page, Rooney said: “There’s a load of rubbish being written about me changing twitter bio saying I have deleted Manchester United from it.
“I have never deleted Manchester United from the bio whatever the papers are saying because it was never on there.
“All that happened was that I was asked by Nike to add @nikeuk to it – the same as many other sportspeople they sponsor. Funny, no-one’s written about that though!
“That change was made THREE weeks ago and yet people are talking about it as if it’s something that was put up yesterday..”
A spokesperson for Nike confirmed: “In April, we asked Wayne Rooney and other Nike sponsored athletes to add @nikeuk on to their profiles due to changes in ASA guidelines relating to athletes and social media.”
The fact that Rooney didn’t add any comments about his future at the club will only fuel speculation that he could be on his way out, but after all that’s gone in the club this week, it might have a sensible move on his part not to fan the flames even further, especially, as seems to be the case, he doesn’t definitively know where he will be next season.
It will be interesting to see what he has to say if he’s interviewed after tomorrow’s game with Swansea at Old Trafford, mind.
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