What Now For Wayne Rooney?

What Now for Wayne Rooney?

The last few days have been riddled with speculation linking Rooney with a move away from Old Trafford in the summer, with possible bids from PSG already being prepared. Every season for the past three years there has always been rumours of Rooney falling out with Fergie or not being committed enough but every time so far they have been proven wrong as Rooney comes back better than ever. But yet again the rumours have risen all because Rooney was benched for the Champions League match against Madrid on Tuesday night. So what now for the future of Wayne Rooney?

So far this season Rooney has been moved around an awful lot for a player of such quality. Early in the year he played on the left wing, then after a few games he played behind Van Persie as a center forward, he was then dropped even further back into just an attacking midfielder and even sometimes has played as a centre midfielder if the situation has occurred. Why has a player as well known as Rooney not even got a nailed down position let alone a nailed sport on the team sheet? It is all because of one man Robin Van Persie. Last season Rooney was the main man of the team, even if he did not play well he was the main man of the team and always first on the team sheet. But now things have changed and Van Persie has taken Rooney's spot as the main man and by only playing one out and out striker this leaves Rooney in a slight problem, where does he play now? Recently he has started to play as a centre forward/attacking midfielder but this is not Rooney's best position and no one could blame Rooney if he was getting slightly annoyed about the whole situation. Whether he is or not is a completely different situation. But even in all this chopping and changing Rooney still has 14 goals in all competitions and a impressive 12 assists in all competitions. For a player who has not been played in his primary position for the whole year these are very impressive stats that many players would be happy to have. Rooney is this season the 3rd highest goal scorer at United just behind Hernandez who is on 15 but is a way behind Van Persie who is on 23 goals for this year.

Rooney is a unselfish, hard working, strong and very enduring player who 9 times out of 10 gives all for the team and will run and run and run until he has either ran himself into the ground or achieved so sort of success whether it is a goal or an assist. However this season in particular Rooney has shown that when things don't go his way for the majority of any given half for the remainder of the game he is next to useless an example of this that springs to mind is the Swansea away in which Rooney had one of the worst performances I have seen him have in a long time and he started to look more and more irritated and everything he tried to do did not pay off. Another large criticism of Rooney is that for the majority of his career he mostly only scores goals galore against lower teams such as the relegation threatened team such as when he scored 4 against Hull several years ago. I personally think that this is not a fair judgement of Rooney but some fans do hold this believe.

But being benched on Tuesday was the catalyst for more rumours to circulate off Rooney being off with more so called arguments with Fergie. Why do these rumours keep coming back? All because of the Wayne Rooney transfer saga in October 2010. Many United fans have not forgiven him for this many still sing his name and cheer him on a she wears a United shirt and they want to encourage the team as any fan should. But deep down many fans have yet to forgiven Rooney for his statements he made about the club claiming that the club was not ambitious enough for players like himself, but then just several days later resigned for an estimate of £250,000 a week. This further annoyed a selection of United fans who not only felt £250,000 a week is not how much Rooney is worth but also how can a player who insulted the club get such a huge pay rise on another long term contract.

As for the transfer I think it all depend on the money offered. Due to this one simple fact, unless you are owned by billionaires such as City then no player is unsellable. Every player has a price. Anything below £40 million should not even considered and any newspaper articles claiming Fergie will consider offers in the region of £20-£30 million seriously need to get realistic. But over £40 million? This will be very difficult to say no to surely? Imagine this PSG who are the favourites to buy Rooney if he is to go in the summer, offer £45 million. If accepted United will be freeing up £250,000 a week and will have an extra £45 million to spend on a player added on top of the money Fergie would of already been given. The players that we could buy to replace Rooney with these funds are very impressive. Players such as Lewandowski, Mario Gotze, Cavani and Falcao will all now be even more accessible (I am not saying we are linked with these players). But one name springs to mind that if you look at all the facts surrounding them a transfer looks like it has a chance. Cristiano Ronaldo. He only has 2 years remaining on his contract with Madrid and has so far refused to sign a new one, has stated many times he would love to come back and would reportedly accept £250,000 a week, the exact same wage that Rooney is rumoured to be on and the £45 million we could for Rooney would mean we would only have to cough up around £20 million for Ronaldo out of our own pockets. Whether Ronaldo will ever come back one will have to wait and see. As for the Rooney situation I think that if the right other comes along then we would be foolish to decline it but we should not force Rooney out and nor should we look to get rid off him. I would only sell him if the right offer was offered. But if Rooney does not go this summer then I can see Rooney staying for the rest of his career.