/ 27 August 2004

Only one United for Rooney

The lure of Old Trafford is simply too strong for most players and, on the occasions when bidding wars have broken out, Sir Alex Ferguson invariably gets his man. Should they edge nearer to Everton’s valuation of Wayne Rooney ahead of the closure of the transfer window on Tuesday, the 18-year-old will surely be wearing a red shirt by the time he has recovered from the metatarsal fracture sustained at Euro 2004.

‘Newcastle making their bid activated the whole thing,” said Ferguson this week. ‘Everton haven’t actually said he’s for sale so it’s a difficult situation but we’ve made our intentions clear that we’d like the boy and that’s the first time we’ve said it. I was hoping we could get him but time was starting to run out and I was starting to think we had no chance. The next stage is to see what Everton say.”

The irony in this case is that United are somewhat reluctant bidders. The club’s chief executive, David Gill, confirmed during the pre-season tour of the United States that, while they retained an interest in Rooney, they did not expect to sign the striker until the January transfer window at the very earliest.

The teenager appeared on the verge of signing a new contract at Goodison Park, with negotiations ongoing over the size of a get-out clause which, United hoped, might work in their favour in the future.

It appears that contract will not now be ratified, yet, even as recently as last Saturday, Gill said: ‘Louis Saha will be fit in a week or so and Ruud [van Nistelrooy] will be back next month, and, of course, we have Paul Scholes who can play up there [in attack]. The manager is happy with the situation going into the season.”

Furthermore, Gill was reluctant to borrow the money needed to buy Rooney at Everton’s asking price. ‘It is bad business to end up with long-term debt for a short-term asset such as a player,” he said, though that willingness to wait was presumably built on the privately held conviction that Rooney would, eventually, become a United player.

It was Newcastle’s sudden and surprise interest which forced the eight-times Premiership champions, reluctantly, to declare their interest publicly. By structuring the payments over the length of the contract to be offered to the youngster, United would at least ease the financial burden safe in the knowledge that, now they have made their move, Rooney is as good as theirs.

With the exception of when Chelsea are involved and isolated cases such as Ronaldinho’s decision to join Barcelona, United would expect to beat all-comers in attracting players. Their bid to Independiente for Diego Forlan three years ago fell short of Middlesbrough’s offer, but the Uruguayan ended up at Old Trafford nevertheless. Indeed, their track record extends back even further.

Roy Keane’s refusal to join Blackburn Rovers for £4-million in 1993 forced Nottingham Forest to accept a £3,75-million bid from United or face the prospect of being left with, as Keane wrote in his autobiography, ‘an asset worth nothing, training with the reserve team”.

When Keane eventually moved to Manchester he accepted a salary of £50 000 a year — less than that offered by Rovers.

‘A thousand pounds a week was a small price to pay to be a Manchester United player,” wrote Keane.

The motivation for Rooney is slightly different. He is deeply disillusioned by life in what he considers to be the goldfish bowl of Liverpool, and upset by lurid stories detailing visits to brothels in the city. He feels he needs to move away from Merseyside, but Manchester would allow him to remain closer to home. —