Manchester United Transfer News: Latest Wayne Rooney and Matteo Darmian Rumours

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has ruled out any possibility of club captain Wayne Rooney leaving the club in January despite interest from abroad. Meanwhile, Inter Milan have reportedly agreed to sign Matteo Darmian this winter.

Mourinho made the long-anticipated decision to drop an underperforming Rooney from his starting XI this season, but he dismissed any talk of a move to China or Major League Soccer, per the Daily Star's Ian Whittell:

"

He’s going nowhere. We like him, he likes us.

He’s not happy in the last matches because he was on the bench but I think he is even unhappier when he’s not on the bench because he’s been injured and has to stay in the stands.

There are no problems at all. He’s my captain. He is the team captain. He behaves like that.

"

Rooney started out under Mourinho as a prominent figure in the United XI, but the England captain has now failed to start in the club's last five domestic matches and was out of the squad for the last two of those.

Everton manager Ronald Koeman also helped stoke the fires of speculation by admitting he'd be interested in a potential deal if the possibility emerged for Rooney to complete a Goodison Park comeback, via Sky Sports News HQ:

At 31 years of age, Rooney has now been playing top-flight football for the past 15 years and is showing signs of the inevitable wear-and-tear such consistent strain has undoubtedly put on his body.

Even with that being the case, however, the former Toffees starlet will be "fuming" with losing his place in the team, according to former Manchester City goalkeeper Shay Given, who recently appeared on BBC 5 live Sport:

Rooney has a contract at Old Trafford that's set to run until the summer of 2019, meaning he has two more seasons left on his deal after this current one before he'd be free to leave the Theatre of Dreams for nothing.

It's possible a team could come in for the superstar before then, though, and despite Mourinho's pledge to keep the player for now, football writer Liam Canning has predicted a messy path is ahead:

Elsewhere, Italian outlet Tuttomercatoweb (h/t the Daily Star's Colin Harvey) reported Inter have agreed a deal to bring former Torino right-back Darmian back to Serie A this winter.

Antonio Valencia has undergone a sterling resurgence under Mourinho this season, although Squawka's Josh Hood pointed to Darmian enjoying a fine outing of his own in the UEFA Europa League recently:

The Italian defender arrived at Old Trafford 18 months ago under Louis van Gaal's reign, but the form of Valencia, as well as upcoming full-back Timothy Fosu-Mensah, has kept Darmian too far from United's XI.

Inter seem willing to grant Darmian a January route back to his native Serie A, and Mourinho appears only too willing to deem the player surplus to requirements to push through a move.