Wayne Rooney WILL STAY at Manchester United

May 2008 - It was a rainy night in Moscow and the Red Army was celebrating its third European title. There couldn't have been a better way to honor the Busby Babes on their 50^th anniversary than winning the biggest competition in club football. The attack comprising of Ronaldo, Rooney and Tevez had delivered its first Champions League crown and this young trio was expected to add a few more Europeans cups to the trophy cabinet.

What’s Happened Since Then?

October 2010 - Let's roll the clock by a couple of years. There is no CR7 or Carlito at Old Trafford any more. No longer do the OT faithful sing “Viva Ronaldo” or chant the Argentine’s country name. The team had to rebuild last year and develop a new offensive strategy that revolved around Wayne Rooney.

Wazza responded well and scored a staggering 34 goals for United till their European quarter final’s 1^st leg match against Bayern Munich in March ’10. Despite being ruled out for a month and after being advised plenty of rest by the doctors, Rooney made one of the most astonishing comebacks and started the return leg within a week’s time. His contribution came to a premature conclusion after some disgraceful and shameful lunges on his injured ankle by Van Bommel and Van Buyten.

Since that day, no one has seen glimpses of the magic he produced last season. Nobody's image got tarnished more than Rooney's at the conclusion of the world cup. Of course, the recent claims by a prostitute haven’t helped his cause either and the Marvel of Old Trafford seems to have hit the wall. The media has unsurprisingly been out in full swing and taken undue advantage of his situation.

The word is, he has fallen out with Sir Alex Ferguson and wants to leave Old Trafford at the earliest.

Now, where in the world did this story pop out from? Was it through that secret “club insider” that The Sun and NOTW have exclusive access to? Or is the pro-London media trying to unsettle Rooney? We've witnessed something similar in the Fabregas saga. But unlike that case, player’s relationship with his manager is being questioned

Are the rumors true?

I remember reading similar stories last season regarding Anderson and Vidic. Just because SAF started Evans in place of Vidic for a couple of games, the media came out with a story claiming that him and SAF were not on talking terms. Like always, the rumors were laid to rest once Vida signed a new deal with the club.

Fergie is a smart manager and knows how to manipulate things in his favor. Rooney has just come off a game played in Wembley. Historically, we've had English players come back from their home games carrying injuries or niggles. Hence he might have thought of resting him against a team (West Brom) that initially didn't seem like a huge challenge. In addition to that, United are about to enter the most crucial juncture of their season. They'll be playing 8 games in the next 23 days. That's almost one game every 3 days till mid November. This is where we essentially lost the title last season. It was the inability to rotate the squad during a period that offered no rest, and the fact that Carrick, Fletcher and Giggs were forced to play as part of our back four that lead us to lose a large chunk of points in the Premier League.

Hence, SAF's decision to bench Rooney was completely justified. Having learnt the lesson from previous season, a lot of 1st team players will be benched in the next month or so. It doesn't imply that it's because of a rift with the manager. The current Rooney situation, understandably so, seems a lot worse to folks because of the whole media effect.

One needs to be aware of the fact that Rooney is young and understandably so wants to play every game. However, SAF isn't willing to risk his most important asset this early in the season.

Sun, NOTW and Times of India have wrongly been quoting Rooney in the past week. The intention, it seems, was always to convert this spark into a wildfire. Congrats to them. It seems to have worked and a lot of people have bought the news. 

Many pundits have also voiced their concerns about his incapability to put the ball in the back of the net. Will that encourage the club to boot him off their roster? Certainly not.

United is blessed to have people like Sir Bobby Charlton and SAF on top. They know that every player goes through such a patch at some point of time in their career. I personally don't think he is fit enough to compete in the Premier League week in & week out. Ever since he has suffered that ankle injury, we have stopped seeing those darting runs into the box and he hasn't been connecting that well with the midfield or offense. I'm sure that once he gets a five game run, he'll be back as a major contributor for this team. Trust me on this, if Rooney scores 2-3 goals in the next five games, we won't be having this discussion.

Luckily, some of the top brains in football are in accord with my assessment of the situation.

Jose Mourinho dismissed the rumor as soon as he was asked to comment on the matter.

"I don't think he will leave," said Mourinho. "The question is, who would we move aside if we signed another striker? In January, there will be neither ins nor outs. June is a long way away."

Like Mourinho, Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger also predicted Rooney would stay at Old Trafford.

"I am convinced he will stay at Manchester United because it is his club. They have the power to keep him and I don't believe in the story," he said.