Rooney's Future Will Be Clearer Following Tuesday Talks With Moyes

Here is what we know: Wayne Rooney has requested a transfer out of Manchester United at least once (back in 2010), and former manager Sir Alex Ferguson claimed in May that the 27-year-old had demanded an exit a second time.

We also know Arsenal have made a £20 million bid for the England attacker, according to the Mirror, and that Gunners boss Arsene Wenger could have upwards of £70 million to play with as he looks to bolster his squad ahead of next season.

The “what we know” category also includes Rooney’s salary of £225,000 per week on a contract that still has two years remaining on it.

Here is what we don’t know: Did Rooney actually request a transfer during the spring? He claims he didn’t, and there hasn’t been so much of a peep out of his camp since he began his summer holidays earlier this month.

We also don’t know what a Wayne Rooney-David Moyes relationship would look like.

Moyes, who was hired to replace Ferguson, has yet to actually serve a single day on United’s payroll and will only begin his tenure as United manager on Monday. No doubt his first priority will be to sit down with Rooney and plot a course for the future, and the Daily Mail has reported that meeting could take place as soon as Tuesday.

Until it happens, we simply won’t know what shirt the five-time Premier League winner will be wearing in August, although there’s a case to be made that his best option remains staying right where he is.

The case is this.

Under no set of circumstances would Wenger contemplate paying anywhere near the wages Rooney has been earning at Old Trafford. And given his transfer request of nearly three years ago, we know wages are rather important to Rooney. Financially, such a transaction would upset the applecart at Arsenal, and that simply won’t happen as long as Wenger is running the show.

As for the player, he’d be putting his place in England’s World Cup team (provided it qualifies) in serious jeopardy if he bolted United less than a year before the tournament.

There’s a school of thought that has suggested he actually needs a move to guarantee his spot, but the uncertainty of a new club, new system and, depending on his destination, new country and culture would only combine to hamper his international ambitions.

And if it’s a fresh start he needs, he’ll be getting that at United, anyway.

Moyes won’t be making many decisions regarding his first-team squad until well into preseason training, and to that end, Rooney is on about the same level as everyone else at the club.

It’s no secret that he and Ferguson butted heads now and again during their nine-year coexistence, but with a new backroom staff about to take over, he could conceivably achieve the changes he has in mind exactly where he is.

That would be good for United; it would be good for England; it would be good for Wayne Rooney.