The Wayne Rooney-Manchester United Saga: Winners and Losers

The Wayne Rooney saga is over. The best Manchester United player, by some distance, received the contract that he was looking for right from the beginning. The club keep their best asset on a short leash, Sir Alex Ferguson is still the greatest manager of all time and the fans still have their idol. So who are the winners and losers of the biggest game of Texas Hold'em since Tom Hicks went to war with Martin Broughton?

The Winners:

The obvious place to start is that main protagonist himself—Wayne Mark Rooney.

Rooney is onto a winner. Like it or not, he is the face of Manchester United. It might be the face of a man who is old before his time, a face that resembles a weather beaten prize fighter, but that is where the beauty of marketing comes in. Rooney is easily as recognisable as David Beckham in his pomp.

He knows this, his agent knows this and more importantly, everyone associated with Manchester United knows this too, that's why they more than doubled his wages. He is the last iconic star at the club.

The biggest problem on the Rooney side was that around eight months ago, he had stated his desire to stay at the club for life.

This was a cardinal error as contract negotiations were just beginning, and it immediately sent word to the hierarchy at United that the player might stay for less than his market value, so true to fact, United offered him far below his expectations.

The deal hinged upon image rights. When an 18-year-old Rooney moved to United from Everton in the summer of 2004, his agent Paul Stretford negotiated a percentage of the image rights for his client. It was a breakthrough deal as Rooney became the first teenager in British football to own part of his image.

That image is now worth millions a year to the club.

While the contract dispute was about Rooney asserting his rights upon United to be recognised as their best player, before the new deal, he earned 50 percent less than some players at Old Trafford and was not in the Top 20 earners in world football, although he is recognised as one of its best players, he has come out of this deal owning a larger percentage of his image.

David Beckham's highest contract at Old Trafford earned him £70k per week and £20k per year through jersey sales; it was a pioneering contract regarding rights in football. Rooney now earns around £200k per week and £1.5 million per year from jersey sales.

We live in a society that preaches entrepreneurial beliefs where we are taught to work as hard as you can to earn as much as you can, and as much as you deserve. Rooney can do things that mere mortals can only dream of. He deserves his contract.

Sir Alex Ferguson:

There can be little doubt that Sir Alex Ferguson is a winner here. He holds onto his best player and lynch-pin. Without Rooney in the side, there would be no title challenge this year.

Last year Rooney, single-handedly, brought the club to within a whisker of a fourth consecutive title. Ferguson knows how good his prodigy is and how he has shoulders broad enough to carry his team mates when the battle is at its most intense.

He also manipulated the media with incredible ease. No mean feat considering that he has banned all but two journalists from domestic Manchester United press conferences.

His reputation with the fans seems to have increased, as many now see the "old man" as someone who can still battle when the going gets tough.

It would also appear that there is now more money on the table for Sir Alex Ferguson to spend. Whether that is true remains to be seen.

The Glazers:

Yup, the Glazer family.

When Sir Alex Ferguson's carefully choreographed six and a half minute PR statement was made almost every red shirted fan jumped onto his bandwagon and backed the club against the player.

In effect, they back the Glazers.

It was a bitter blow for the Red Knights and the Green and Gold brigade. Had Rooney have left the club then their bargaining position would have strengthened significantly, instead Rooney stayed and the Glazers stumped up the money. The fans have never been happier, neither have the Glazers.

Joe Glazer is even receiving acclaim for calling Wayne Rooney at home to negotiate his stay.

Paul Stretford:

The Rooney family's agent played a blinder during these negotiations. The club and Rooney's representative began talking last March; strangely the talks broke down around the same time as the player got injured...

Then when he came back, the parties hit an impasse. By releasing the statement when he did, Stretford forced United to face up to the fact that they could lose their best asset if they did not treat him correctly.

The end result was Stretford's client gaining a much improved contract.

Manchester United:

The club has held onto its best asset.

Should the Glazers financial woes continue then they will be able to sell Rooney for anything from £50 million upwards. Letting him leave for less would have been criminal.

The easiest option for the club was to double his wages and hope he returns to form quickly.

The Losers:

Sir Alex Ferguson:

Ferguson's "bombshell" statement was about as perfectly worded as one could have hoped. It hit every single target with the clarity of a Jedi at ninja training.

However, it was disingenuous to say the least. Negotiations had begun almost six months previous to Ferguson's assertions that they had only begun in August. Someone had to be lying, Ferguson or Rooney?

While many say that Rooney misread the fans reaction to his leaving, it is Ferguson who misread the fans reaction to his statement.

Within 24 hours, men with hooded balaclavas began protesting outside the Rooney family home. Posters of Wayne Rooney were defaced in Manchester with death threats if he joined City.

Ferguson wanted to gain the moral high ground with his statement but lost it with the fans reactions.

The Fans:

The way the fans' anger manifested itself on Thursday night as they protested and abused Rooney from outside his home disgusted many within the game. The momentum had begun in United's match at the weekend as Rooney was called a "whore" by his own.

The end result was Colleen Rooney being forced to call the Police to remove the group around 40 or so.

Now that he has signed, they will cheer him when he scores, because he has shown his class in staying at the club...

Manchester United:

As it stands, the Red Devils are £750 million in debt and that is rising slowly ever day. They have now committed the club to an extra £5.7 million per season for the next five years.

Considering that the club produced record losses last season one has to wonder at the maths of the situation.

To save money, all free tea and toast for non-essential staff is now banned.

Manchester City:

Paul Stretford had put the feelers out to United's noisy neighbours. They were more than interested in signing the player but were conscious of being used as a tool against United.

Stretford's plan worked a treat. Ferguson and Gill received word that Rooney was interested in going to City and improved their offer.

The loss of their best player to their rivals would have been tantamount to suicide for the Glazers, Ferguson, Gill, and probably the club.

Rooney seemingly turned down an £85 million five-year contract at City, not bad for someone who was a whore just five days previous.

The Red Knights campaign would almost definitely have kicked on a notch or two.

The Red Knights:

No matter which way you look, the Red Knights come out of this further on the periphery than ever before.

After Ferguson's statement, the fans backed the club against Rooney.

The best outcome for the Red Knights would have been the striker leaving the club due to lack of finances.

This didn't happen and now the Green and Gold will have to almost start from scratch as they try to engineer the Glazers away from the club.

Ian Holloway:

The Blackpool manager had a press conference on Friday afternoon and came across pretty badly.

He came out defending Alex Ferguson and ended up doing Wayne Rooney the biggest favour he could.

Basically, he compared Rooney to a piece of merchandise that Manchester United owned. He went further by comparing Rooney to a car or a house.

In the end, he ended up making Rooney look like a piece of meat that had no choice in the matter.

One must wonder at how Blackpool's players viewed the statement and what they read into their managers less than astute words.

Was this Holloway's "Phil Brown" moment? Only time will tell...

This article was previously featured on Tiger Beer Football, where Willie Gannon is the featured Blogger. Over 18s only.