Everton’s £50 000-a-week carrot to entice Wayne Rooney to stay put at the debt-ridden Goodison Park is no joke, the club’s owner Bill Kenwright has insisted.
Kenwright told Sky television he hopes English football’s hottest property will sign the new five-year contract even though the teenage striker’s sale would go a long way to clearing the Liverpool club’s £30-million debts.
”Certainly a sale of Wayne Rooney would revitalise the club’s finances, but a five-year contract would also revitalise the club because the fact is we would have kept one of the major stars of world football,” Kenwright claimed.
”From the time Wayne signed his last contract we have been talking to [his agent] Paul Stretford about a new one,” he added on Monday.
”I suppose, going into this next season, we were thinking probably, double your money, we’ll double what you are on now.
”But [coach] David Moyes said: ‘Look, he’s the best player in the world and I want to support the best player in the world. I’d like
him to become my captain and I think we should offer him the highest wage in our history.’
”And I agreed totally and offered him the £50 000 a week — and that is not a joke offer, that is the offer in the contract.
”David and I will be personally dealing with it [Rooney’s future] in the next week or so.”
The proposed five-figure-a-week pay cheque is a far cry from the £80 a week he was pocketing as a trainee less than two years ago.
Everton want to resolve Rooney’s future quickly as his value will drop the nearer he gets to the end of the two years left on his existing contract.
”You cannot allow a player like Wayne to go into the last year of his contract and lose a major asset, as happened with Steve McManaman [when he left Liverpool for Real Madrid],” warned Kenwright.
He dismissed suggestions that a power struggle has developed in the wake of chief executive Trevor Birch’s sudden departure last week just a month-and-a-half after he was appointed to tackle Everton’s debt.
”I don’t know of any power struggle. It’s absolute nonsense. I am not interested in power and control. All I want is for my club to do well.
”As for there being crisis talks between me and David, I don’t know where that comes from.
”David and I were always going to spend time talking about budgets and new signings. Obviously we spent a couple of minutes talking about Trevor’s departure — but we speak the same language.” — Sapa-AFP