Simon Burnton
Saturday August 12, 2006
The Guardian
Wayne Rooney will be offered a new contract at Manchester United worth £90,000 a week after the club's manager Sir Alex Ferguson admitted his determination to keep the 20-year-old at Old Trafford for a "lifetime".
Rooney, who still has four years left to run on his current £45,000-a-week contract, has publicly stated his desire to extend his stay at United beyond the terms he agreed on his arrival from Everton in August 2004.
While United are under no pressure to extend the player's deal, the club are determined to avoid the long-running saga that saw negotiations with Rio Ferdinand drag on for over a year before he finally put pen to paper at the start of last season and Ferguson is keen to secure the services of Rooney, his most important player, for as long as possible.
Ferguson said: "It's something that chief executive David Gill and I have discussed already because we want Wayne Rooney to stay for a lifetime. He's a fantastic footballer and his energy and enthusiasm show he is going to be a top, top player.
"We have always tried to ensure that contract situations are on the plus side for us. We did it with Cristiano Ronaldo last season and young Giuseppe Rossi during the summer. We have a group of young players that we want to stay together for a long time and Wayne is definitely very much part of that."
The club offered further proof of that policy yesterday when both Park Ji-Sung and Mikael Silvestre signed contract extensions. Park is now committed to United until 2010, while Silvestre's deal expires a year earlier.
United's most recent signing, the Polish goalkeeper Tomasz Kuszczak, is expected to make his debut against Sevilla at Old Trafford today after completing his transfer from West Bromwich yesterday. Kuszczak will sign a three-year deal at United once his initial loan expires next June and Ferguson - whose other transfer target, the Villarreal midfielder Marcos Senna, was yesterday dropped by Spain - is hopeful that the 24-year-old can develop into a long-term successor to a United legend, Peter Schmeichel.
Ferguson said: "It's fair to say that we would love another Peter Schmeichel because he is recognised as possibly the best goalkeeper of all time. We hope Tomasz fits into that bracket, but good keepers don't mature until their mid-20s and Schmeichel was 27 when he joined us. We are identifying potential in Tomasz and young Ben Foster and I think we are doing the right thing."
United yesterday appealed against the red cards shown to Wayne Rooney and Paul Scholes in last Friday's friendly win over Porto in Amsterdam, with Ferguson disappointed that the incidents were reported to the FA at all. "I am surprised it has carried on this far," he said.
It is believed that Rooney's appeal is likely to be successful but that Scholes' may well fail. Should the red cards stand, the players would miss the Premiership trips to Charlton and Watford and then, more importantly, the home encounter with Tottenham on September 9.
http://www.football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,,1842900,00.html