The Wayne Rooney saga

                                           

Now  that the dust has settled over the Wayne Rooney situation, lets have a closer look at it. The whole saga began with the drop in form of Rooney, with only one goal so far this season, there have been much discussion over the reason for this drop in form, was this a hangover from the poor performances at the World Cup? Sir Alex Ferguson kept on repeating that Rooney was carrying an ankle injury which had occurred at the end of last season and that he was not 100%. After the Montenegro Euro 2012 qualifier, Rooney was interviewed and he openly contradicted Ferguson's comments about the ankle injury and said that he was not carrying any injuries. This led to Rooney's omission from the next couple of Man United games. At a pre-Champions league game press conference, a devastated Ferguson announced that Rooney had told Chief Executive, David Gill that he wanted to leave Man United. The conference was once in a lifetime thing, with the kind of emotion that Ferguson normally did not show. He left the door open for Rooney to change his mind but it looked like the end of Rooney's Man United career. This seemed to be set in stone, the next day when Rooney himself sent out a statement, citing the reason for wanting to leave was that there was no "assurances i was seeking about the future squad." But 2 days later, Rooney had signed a new 5 year contract saying that his assurances were met by the Man United hierarchy in meetings the past two days.

After one of the biggest u-turn in football, why did Rooney sign a new contract? Was it the money, was it to get Man United a bigger transfer fee in the summer or did the owners actually meet the demands for world class players in the team?

With the numbers which have been banded around the newspapers ranging from £150,000 all the way up to £250,000 a week, money seems to be one of the reasons for Rooney signing a new contract, but the important question is whether Rooney's refusal to sign a contract initially was down to the "low" amount of money offered and that the increase in the offer of wages was the one factor which got Rooney to sign on the dotted line? Another possiblity is that signing a new contract would guarantee Man United a higher transfer fee if he decided to go ahead with his demands to leave next summer, as his previous contract only had 18 months left on it and would therefore command less of a fee if the likes of Real Madrid and Man City came calling for Rooney. Or it could be that Sir Alex Ferguson, David Gill and the Glazers were able to convince Rooney that major investment would be put into the team and the likes of Snejider and Benzema would be headed to Old Trafford.

I personally believe that Rooney did get a rise in wages, but with Rooney's love of football, money must not have been the only motivating factor for him to sign a new contract. Its obvious to see his love for Man United where he has been for 6 years, and that nothing would make him happier than to see United lifting the Premier League or Champions League trophy again. With the power that agents have in football nowadays, Rooney might have been easily persuaded to release that statement saying that he wanted to leave, fully knowing that there would be a queue of clubs who love to have him in their team and hold Man United to ransom over his wages. But with the amount of debt coming from the Glazers' takeover showing no signs of decreasing, it is hard to see where the money for marquee players is going to come from. There was a chance to significantly strengthen the team over the summer but no big money signings were made. Fans wonder where the £80m from the sale of Ronaldo has gone while David Gill always maintained that there was £100m in the transfer kitty if Ferguson needed it, so why not spend on players to replace the aging Gary Neville, Scholes and Giggs?

There has been a happy ending to this saga for all parties, Rooney has his increase in wages, Ferguson is able to keep his star players while the Glazers have kept one of the main players to bring in as much money into the club, but will Rooney's future creep up again in the summer? We shall see if  the assurances that Rooney demanded have been met in the next year before that can be answered.