Rooney: The Straw That Broke The Camel’s Back

Last night’s report from Sky Sports that Wayne Rooney has been left confused and angered by recent comments from David Moyes and executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward weren’t well received by United fans, many of whom would like to see the Rooney matter resolved with the player being sold.

The issue has been ongoing since Sir Alex Ferguson publicly announced that Rooney had tried to leave Old Trafford for a second time.

When Moyes took over as manager, what would happen with Rooney was one of the dominant themes of his first presser but all Moyes would offer on the matter was that Rooney had been training well and that he was not for sale.

When Rooney flew home with an apparent hamstring injury many felt it was an elaborate plan leading to the sale of the striker, but he himself denied this but this latest development could very well see Rooney had in the written transfer request that sees him finally leave Old Trafford.

United We Stand’s Andy Mitten appeared on talkSPORT to discuss the matter and had this to say on Rooney and his possible departure:

“It’s been an issue since March, and the players have understood that he’s wanted to leave consistently since March.

“There’s some little argument about whether he asked for a transfer or not, verbally Manchester United think he did. Did he put a written request in? Probably not. So you’ve got two sides briefing against each other.

“I understand, I know people very close to the situation, that he wants to go. That the people advising him, not sure that they are always advising him well, want him to go.

“Where can he go? There’s not a huge amount of clubs who want him and there’s only 5 or 6 clubs who can afford him. And of those 5 or 6, how many want him? Barcelona don’t, Real Madrid don’t, Chelsea? Manchester United don’t want to sell him to Chelsea. But Manchester United can’t decide where Rooney is going so you’ve got this who blinks first issue and all along Wayne Rooney doesn’t want to burn his bridges with United fans, but it feels like he’s burned his bridges.”

Mitten’s March quote lends credence to claims that Rooney offence to being left out of the Champions League tie with Real Madrid, and his statement also confirms as suspected by Moyes’ response that the manager was not able to convince Rooney to stay at Old Trafford willingly.

Mitten is usually reliable so these quotes represent an issue for Moyes that he will need to resolve before the season starts. Having essentially told the striker that he won’t be going anywhere, one would hope that it doesn’t become a disruption in the dressing as has previously been claimed.