SOCCER:WAYNE ROONEY has vowed to win back the trust of Manchester United's fans after agreeing a new five-year contract only two days after stating unequivocally that he wanted to leave Old Trafford because he thought they were a club in decline.
Rooney has become the best-paid player in the club’s history by agreeing to a deal that doubles his wages to around €200,000 a week, after Alex Ferguson talked him out of his apparent desire to join Manchester City.
United’s owners, the Glazers, became involved, agreeing to meet the player’s financial requirements and assuring him during a series of transatlantic phone calls that the club were still capable of competing for the more expensive players in the transfer market.
Ferguson, though, insisted Rooney apologised to him and the players for the statement he released on Wednesday saying he wanted to leave because he was not certain whether the team were capable of challenging for major trophies in the coming years. Rooney made his apology at the training ground this morning and it was well received by his team-mates.
Rooney has been accused of disloyalty and greed by many United fans, their anger, which manifested itself during Wednesday’s Champions League tie against Bursaspor taking on a more sinister edge when a 40-strong mob wearing balaclavas turned up at his house on Thursday night.
“I’m sure the fans over the last week have felt let down by what they’ve read and seen,” Rooney said. “The fans have been upset but my message to them is that I care for the club. I just want it to continue to be successful. My position was always from concern over the future.
“Some fans may not take to me again very quickly. It may take time. But I will give everything. I will give 100 per cent and try to build that relationship back. The fans have been brilliant with me since I arrived and it’s up to me through my performances to win them over again.”
Rooney added: “In the last couple of days, I’ve talked to the manager and the owners and they’ve convinced me this is where I belong. I’m signing a new deal in the absolute belief that the management, coaching staff, board and owners are totally committed to making sure United maintains its proud winning history – which is the reason I joined the club in the first place.”
That represents a complete volte-face from Rooney’s statement questioning whether the club were in danger of stagnating under the Glazers. His position looked untenable at that time, with serious cracks emerging in his relationship with Ferguson, but the manager and player have spoken at length to resolve those differences over the last two days.
“The manager made it clear that the door was still open for me to sign,” Rooney said. “That’s when I spoke to my agent. I said: ‘Let’s go and sit down and get it resolved.’ We went in and spoke to the manager, the Glazers and (the chief executive) David Gill and sorted it out.”
Ferguson had told Rooney he was in danger of making the biggest mistake of his professional life. “Sometimes, when you’re in a club, it can be hard to realise just how big it is and it takes something like the events of the last few days to make you understand,” the manager said. “I think Wayne now understands what a great club Manchester United is.
“Sometimes you think something’s better elsewhere but once all that publicity came out . . . I think the impact of it and the response from everyone resonated with Wayne quite a lot, and he had second thoughts. He has apologised to me and the players, and I think he’ll do that with the fans, which is important, because we’ve all been hurt by the events of the past few days. I always feel it’s a quality in a person when they say they’re sorry and realise they’ve made a mistake.
