Sir Alex Ferguson prepares for Wayne Rooney questions
Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson often cuts a tetchy figure at the best of times during press conferences.
However, this afternoon’s pre-Champions League presser is set to be one of the most inquisitive of the Scot’s 24-year reign, as the media prepare to grill him over the issue which has dominated newspaper headlines over recent days: Wayne Rooney – will he, or won’t he?
The Red Devils striker is reportedly unhappy at Old Trafford and keen to force a move from the club he joined as a hugely-talented 18-year-old in 2004.
Despite enjoying the most prolific campaign as a professional football last season, in which he scored 34 goals, it’s now believed that Ferguson and Rooney are no longer on speaking terms after a host of lurid tabloid allegations surfaced last month.
Left out of Saturday’s starting line-up for the Premier League clash against West Brom, which finished 2-2, it didn’t take long for reports to emerge confirming that Rooney is unprepared to sign another contract with the club.
Ferguson banned questions about Rooney-gate at an unrelated press conference on Monday, involving United’s pledge to donate £1 million to Unicef, but Ferguson will be prompted to reveal all by a set of journalists hungry for answers this afternoon.
During the Unicef press conference, Ferguson spoke of the importance that his players – and others – understand the harsh realities of what the real world can be like.
While speaking about a trip to Thailand in 1999, the Scot said: "It shocked many of my players and made them realise what the real world was like because they can live a very cocooned existence and are very wealthy."
For the more cynical out there, they will believe that this was a subtle dig at Rooney, who has courted controversy ever since his underwhelming World Cup campaign.
Notoriously strict about what is published about his players and the club, it wouldn’t be a surprise if Ferguson bats off suggestions that Rooney is unhappy this afternoon. With the striker contracted until the summer of 2012, it’s plausible that their differences can still be resolved.
But as every month passes, Rooney’s valuation will soon begin to plummet, as he nears closer to being allowed to leave the club on a free transfer.
It’s believed that United’s big-spending rivals, Manchester City, are one of the clubs interested in the England international’s services. Indeed, they are only one of a handful of clubs equipped with the financial resources to fund such a deal.
Yesterday, Real Madrid sporting director Jorge Valdano played down suggestions that the Spanish giants are one of the clubs interested in the 24-year-old, while Barcelona splashed the cash on David Villa in the summer and, as a result, are unlikely to have the cash to complete any transfer involving the world-renowned star.
That leaves Chelsea, whose owner Roman Abramovic has made considerable losses over the past 12 months and hasn’t signed any player worth over £30million since Andriy Shevchenko in 2006, and City, who would have no problem offering Rooney and his agent all the financial incentives they could dream of.
In what many United fans would regard as the ultimate betrayal, Rooney has several life-changing decisions to make over the forthcoming weeks.
Meanwhile, how much Ferguson reveals to the packed media room inside Old Trafford this afternoon is unclear.
But unless he wants to face further contradictions from his volatile, scorner striker, he might just think about nipping this one in the bud before things really begin to get out of hand.
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