Wayne Rooney is going nowhere and will continue to be a Manchester United player next season, manager Sir Alex Ferguson has said. Ferguson also says Rooney will be involved against Chelsea in the FA Cup quarter-final on Sunday.
“‘Wayne Rooney will be here next year. He understood exactly what we were doing (tactically v Real Madrid).” Ferguson told a news conference. “You can have my word on that”.
Rooney is staying at United. Getty Images
Ferguson went on to say that there’s “absolutely no issue” between him and Rooney – and described recent speculation as “absolute rubbish”. He said reports that they didn’t talk on the training pitch were “absolute nonsense”.
“There’s no issue between Rooney and I. Danny Welbeck was the best player we have (to close down Alonso). I left out Shinji Kagawa, who scored a hat-trick, and nobody mentioned that. I thought I might get more criticism for that,” Ferguson added.
Speculation about Rooney’s future arose after he was dropped for United’s Champions League last-16 defeat by Real Madrid on Tuesday. He came on later in the game but didn’t have much of an impact. Ferguson has also banned two newspapers from press conferences over false Rooney accusations. They won’t be back until they issue apologies.
