Wayne Rooney and Manchester United have reacted strongly to speculation that Rooney is set to leave the club, but is there more to this story than meets the eye?
Last night, a picture of the front page of The Independent (see below) surfaced on Twitter with the headline ‘Exclusive, Ferguson set to let Rooney go’, suggesting that the relationship between the manager and his most important player had reached breaking point and that Old Red Nose was prepared to cut his losses on a player who caused such turmoil over a transfer request last season.
After much debate about the credibility of the story on the social media site, the club and the player moved to defuse the rumours, with United issuing a statement which read: “Manchester United and Wayne Rooney have been made aware of the theme of an article in tomorrow’s Independent newspaper.
“We have not seen the detail but can assure all United fans that the manager and the club are committed to Wayne Rooney and Wayne is committed to the manager and the club.
“The player and the manager have always had and retain, the utmost respect for each other and look forward to working together in the coming seasons. Any suggestion that Manchester United and Wayne Rooney are to part company is complete nonsense.”
At the same time that United released the statement, Rooney issued an even more forceful denial on his Twitter page, saying:
Despite the strong comments from both Rooney and the club, there remains speculation that there is no smoke without fire and the Rooney issue is far from resolved. Even though the picture of The Independent’s front page surfaced before the statements from Rooney and United were released, they are included in the story on The Independent website this morning.
The article, written by respected football hack James Lawton and seemingly informed by a source close to the club, suggests that Ferguson has not been impressed with Rooney’s form or behaviour ever since he moved mountains to get him to sign a new contract at the tail end of 2010.
The follically enhanced Shrek-lookalike has impressed in patches, but has struggled to reach a consistent level of performance and was absolutely woeful against Newcastle on Wednesday night, when he was deservedly withdrawn midway through the second half even though United were chasing the game.
That excuse for a performance came shortly after he was dropped for United’s 3-2 home defeat to Blackburn after a Stephen’s Day night out and a subsequent poor showing in training that prompted Fergie to leave him out and fine him a week’s wages.
Although The Independent article suggested that Fergie was willing to wash his hands of Rooney in the current transfer window, that now seems highly unlikely given the strength of the denials issued by both the player and the manager.
That doesn’t mean that this is the end, however. After all, no player is bigger than the club and the likes of Roy Keane, Jaap Stam and Ruud Van Nistelrooy have all felt the wrath of Ferguson in the past.
Something says we haven’t heard the last of this one yet.
