http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/m/man_utd/9118602.stm

 

 

Wayne Rooney has made a shock U-turn and agreed a new five-year contract at Manchester United just days after announcing his intention to leave.

On Wednesday the 24-year-old striker said concerns over the club's squad strength were behind his original decision not to sign a new deal.

United boss Sir Alex Ferguson said: "I'm delighted Wayne's agreed to stay."

Rooney stated: "I said on Wednesday the manager's a genius and it's his belief and support that convinced me to stay."

He added: "I'm delighted to sign another deal at United. I've spoken to the manager and the owners and they've convinced me this where I belong.

"I am signing a new deal in the absolute belief that the management, coaching staff, board and owners are totally committed to making sure United maintains its proud winning history - which is the reason I joined the club in the first place.

 

"I am sure the fans over the last week have felt let down by what they have read and seen.

"But my position was from concern over the future.

"The fans have been brilliant with me since I arrived and it's up to me through my performances to win them over again."

The agreement ends a period of intensive discussions at Old Trafford after Rooney issued a statement in which he revealed that United chief David Gill had not given him the assurance he was seeking about the future squad.

"It's been a difficult week but the intensity of the coverage is what we expect at Manchester United," Ferguson told the club's website.

"Sometimes, when you're in a club, it can be hard to realise just how big it is and it takes something like the events of the last few days to make you understand.

"I think Wayne now understands what a great club Manchester United is.

"I'm pleased he has accepted the challenge to guide the younger players and establish himself as one of United's great players.

"It shows character and belief in what we stand for.

"I'm sure everyone involved with the Club will now get behind Wayne and show him the support he needs to produce the performances we know he is capable of."

United supporter Liam Bradford, who is the assistant editor of the Red News fanzine told Radio 5 live: "I'm completely flabbergasted.

"It's been one of those weeks. It's been completely mad.

"I don't know whether this has been planned all along and this was just some elaborate mind game that Sir Alex Ferguson was playing with Wayne Rooney on board or whether it has just been completely surreal for the last seven days.

"At the end of the day, he is a world-class footballer and I really wouldn't want to see him anywhere else. I think I'm more relieved that anything he is not going across the city to the team that plays in blue."

this is incredible.

 

i always had a tiny bit of hope that things would turn around before the january transfer window. cos he has gone through a lot in the last few months and he just wanted to escape from it all.

 

he must be put on the field against stoke on the weekend and be given the chance to get back into form.

this is incredible.

 

i always had a tiny bit of hope that things would turn around before the january transfer window. cos he has gone through a lot in the last few months and he just wanted to escape from it all.

 

he must be put on the field against stoke on the weekend and be given the chance to get back into form.

 

I take it that you are pleased by this then?

I would be if I was a United fan.

The emphasis is on Rooney now to prove himself.

This is win win for United. Rooney is expected to find his form, and his value has increased now you have no urgency to sell for contract reasons.

i am relieved more than pleased. i will be pleased when he starts scoring goals like he was last season.

and sir alex seriously needs to get himself a decent hat.

and sir alex seriously needs to get himself a decent hat.

 

:laugh3:

Indeed.

 

 

Do you reckon it was a con all along to get a better contract? Or has he been given a sweetner with the promise that he can leave if he is not happy in a years time?

i think "the boy" is just plain confused and lost haha. quite literally everything has been going bad for him the last few months. starting with the poor end to the last season, then the joke of a world cup, then the whole affair scandal and then the fake injuries. he just wanted something to go his way for a change (superstars footballers need everything to go their way or its the end of the world) so he took man utd hostage in a certain way and kinda said "do things my way or im out of here" like a pyscho killers demands a ransom for his hostages.

 

sometimes if you say the right things to that psycho he will calm down and withdraw his demands and start seeing sense.

 

maybe thats whats happened with wayne lol. doubt it but its fun contemplating.

Looks like he will be playing in the Manchester derby after all.

Ugh, I'm actually disappointed.

 

If he starts playing better it'll be great to have him. Until then, uugh.

Ugh, I'm actually disappointed.

 

If he starts playing better it'll be great to have him. Until then, uugh.

 

Yes, he needs to start concentrating on his football, stop playing around with prostitutes, keep his trap shut and start proving that he really is one of the best players in the world rather than just living off his reputation.;)

He should also be left out of the England team until his form has returned.

 

I would like nothing better than to see a fully fit and fully motivated Rooney helping England win the European Championships or even the next World Cup.

At the moment that seems like a very remote possibility, however.

Ugh, I'm actually disappointed.

 

If he starts playing better it'll be great to have him. Until then, uugh.

 

^^ this!

 

i've mostly been ambivalent about Rooney...& also Mr Big Ego Ronaldo (tho i'll admit that he's disgustingly talented). 1 frigging week's headlines wasted on what was basically a player throwing a tantrum at not being selected by Fergie (not like he was scoring at all in quite a while now...so it was a fair call from the boss, imo), disrespecting the gaffer, the club & his own team mates...& coming out of it with a 5yr contract + a huge pay rise. how many of us can get away with that in our jobs?

 

hopefully his statement about the club (& hence his team mates) lacking ambition will get them to stop slacking off & dropping points for now + put more pressure on the Glazers. tho personally i don't agree with him that Man United lack ambition...fairly sure Fergie's already working on his next generation of fledglings already. Man United is not all about big name players only, Rooney.

 

wonder how long he'll go before he gets injured again at training from a team mate's tackle after this week's nonsense... :P

 

Eric Cantona + Fergie's Fledglings >>>>>>>>>>>>> Wayne Rooney (for me)

He looks so old for 24.

He looks so old for 24.

 

Maybe it's down to his lifestyle....................... :dozey:

He should also be left out of the England team until his form has returned.

Crapello hasn't got the guts to drop him!

Crapello hasn't got the guts to drop him!

 

Then he should go too!;)

FA haven't got the guts to sack Crapello!

FA haven't got the guts to sack Crapello!

 

Then they should go too.................... :rolleyes:

A victory for greed: In the week the nation is told money's tighter than ever, shameless footballer Wayne Rooney lands a £50m pay deal

 

 

 

By Daily Mail Reporter

Last updated at 9:45 PM on 22nd October 2010

 

 

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• Massive £200,000-a-week deal puts Rooney among football's super rich
  
  
• Striker apologises to fellow players and manager for 'mistake'
  
  

As the rest of us face job threats and austerity over the next five years, Wayne Rooney can afford that self-satisfied grin.

In that same period, he will make an astonishing £50million.

Yesterday he became the highest-paid English footballer of all time after a week-long stand-off with his club Manchester United.

He was pictured smiling cheesily alongside manager Sir Alex Ferguson despite their public criticism of each other. And just to emphasise the obsession with money in the modern game, the club charged £300 a time reproduction rights for the photograph.

 

All is forgiven - allegedly: Sir Alex Ferguson poses with the prodigal Wayne Rooney after the striker signed a new five-year contract yesterday

 

Rooney, who will celebrate his 25th birthday tomorrow with a party at his £4.5million home, apologised to fans for the ugly spat with Sir Alex, but made no excuses for his £200,000-a-week salary - double his previous pay.

The agent who negotiated it, Paul Stretford, will himself receive up to £10million for a deal finalised as child benefit was axed for many families and the coalition announced that 500,000 public-sector jobs would go.

During his stand-off with United, Rooney announced that the club no longer matched his ambition and criticised the quality of his fellow players.

In a comment which stunned many fans, he also said he would be happy to sign for arch-rivals Manchester City.

The striker, who has scored just one goal this season, personally said sorry to his team-mates yesterday afternoon, then went on the club’s television channel to explain his decision to fans - some of whom had surrounded his Cheshire home on Thursday night to voice their disgust that he would consider moving to City, bankrolled by an Arab sheik worth £500billion.

 

 

‘Once it all came out, it looked as though there was nowhere to go,’ he said.

‘But the manager made it quite clear the door was still open for me to sign.

‘I spoke to my agent and said, “Let’s go in and sit down and try to resolve it to get the deal done." I am really pleased we managed to sort it out.’

Ferguson said: ‘I think he knew he had to apologise and I think everything will be swept under the carpet now and carry on where we left off about a month ago, before it all started.’

But there was widespread cynicism about the peace deal.

Rooney was known to have wanted to go to Real Madrid, where his former team-mate Cristiano Ronaldo earns £250,000 a week and pays much less tax.

But this was forbidden by his 24-year-old wife Coleen’s family. His mother-in-law Colette, 48, made clear that a move away from the North West was unacceptable, cutting his options to a choice between United and City.

 

 

 

 

Going nowhere: Rooney leaving Man Utd's training ground after signing the deal yesterday, while his wife Coleen leaves the couple's home as she prepares for her husband's birthday party on Sunday

 

 

 

Support: Team-mate Rio Ferdinand tweeted after the five-year deal keeping Rooney at Man Utd was signed

 

 

Some football insiders suggested that the mob outside his house had convinced Rooney’s camp that his personal security would be at risk if he switched clubs.

But there were also suggestions that the five-year deal was a way of Manchester United making more money by selling him next summer. He lost many friends with his willingness to criticise the club.

Influence: Mother-in-law Colette is believed to have had a big say in Rooney's decision to stay

 

 

 

Rooney’s decision to stay at the club ended a rollercoaster ride which began last weekend, when the first suggestions that he would quit surfaced in a story planted with a Sunday newspaper.

On Tuesday - the day before Chancellor George Osborne unveiled his £80billion austerity package to the nation - Sir Alex Ferguson confirmed that the player’s career at the club appeared to be over, describing himself as ‘dumbfounded that the boy would want to go’.

The next day Rooney’s advisers issued a statement which put him at war with Sir Alex, 68. The footballer said he was ‘surprised’ at the manager’s words, and claimed he wanted to leave because the American-owned club did not have the ambition to succeed that he needed.

Yesterday it became clear that money was enough to make him stay - and the footballing world expressed astonishment at the U-turn, with one veteran saying his head had been turned by cash.

Sammy McIlroy, who played for Manchester United 342 times between 1971 and 1982, said: ‘People on his side have put figures in front of him, that’s the reason he did it.

‘They’ve put words in his mouth - the statements from him were a load of rubbish.’

Alex Stepney, United’s goalkeeper when they won the European Cup in 1968, said: ‘Loyalty has gone out of the game, unfortunately.

‘Ever since agents have been on the scene, they’ve wanted to move players on, but I would think Rooney probably feels he’s been given wrong advice this week.’

MPs said the sheer scale of Rooney’s pay deal exposed how cash was distorting the game. Ironically it came on a day that Championship club Portsmouth FC’s administrators said they would close down the 112-year-old club.

John Whittingdale - Conservative chairman of the Culture, Media and Sport select committee - expressed concern at the salaries top Premier League clubs were paying players.

‘There is this gap between what the top four or five clubs are able to pay and the rest of the Premier League - and how it affects the league,’ said Mr Whittingdale. ‘Those other clubs are left way behind.’

 

 

 

 

Daubed: Threatening graffiti scrawled on a billboard overnight in Manchester city centre attacking Rooney was removed before the striker's shock U-turn which will see him stay at Man Utd for at least another five years

 

 

An intensive care nurse in Rooney’s local hospital, Linda Maher, 46, said: ‘We are having meeting after meeting about problems with the budget.

‘Then you hear about pay deals of £200,000 a week when many nurses don’t get £20,000 a year. It just doesn’t add up and it can’t be right.’

At Rooney’s home, a huge marquee was in readiness for his birthday party tomorrow. Earlier in the week, it appeared that none of his United team-mates would be going to the event. Now all have been invited.

 

 

 

Mansion: More than 30 men gathered outside the gates (top left) of Rooney's mansion in Prestbury, Cheshire

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Preparations: Workers transport scaffolding into the Rooney estate ahead of the star's 25th birthday party

 

 

 

 

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1322744/Wayne-Rooney-staying-Manchester-United-star-U-turn.html#ixzz137g4b3hP

general concensus in Manchester is that Rooney will be gone within 18 months - he's been given a 5 year contract to put the club back in control. Both Beckham and Ronaldo were given new contracts and within 12 months both players were kicked out.

 

An extra £70000 a week or whatever it is, is small change to Man Utd compared to being in control of a potential £60-80m transfer this time next year.

general concensus in Manchester is that Rooney will be gone within 18 months - he's been given a 5 year contract to put the club back in control. Both Beckham and Ronaldo were given new contracts and within 12 months both players were kicked out.

 

An extra £70000 a week or whatever it is, is small change to Man Utd compared to being in control of a potential £60-80m transfer this time next year.

 

yeah im with you there.

general concensus in Manchester is that Rooney will be gone within 18 months - he's been given a 5 year contract to put the club back in control. Both Beckham and Ronaldo were given new contracts and within 12 months both players were kicked out.

 

An extra £70000 a week or whatever it is, is small change to Man Utd compared to being in control of a potential £60-80m transfer this time next year.

 

Makes perfect sense. Maybe you should put some money on it!:P

The player power debate:

 

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_RdLGZ89uU]YouTube - Ian Holloway's outburst on Wayne Rooney[/ame]

Ian Holloway has got it spot on. Wish there were far more people in his position prepared to speak out like him.:cool:

rooney looney is confusing the hell out of me.

FA haven't got the guts to sack Crapello!

 

Nor the money to pay him off