United Finally Win Away

That long awaited victory on the road for Manchester United in the Barclays Premier League has finally come with a 2-1 Victory over Stoke City at the Britannia Stadium today. Javier Hernandez registered a fine double, bagging a goal in either half to ensure that the Red Devils secured all three points.

This has been United's 5th away game of the season and once again it would've appeared that they were heading for their fourth straight draw after surrendering their lead late in the second half after leading 1 - 0 for most of the game.

Sir Alex will be hoping that this apparent 'away curse' has finally been broken and that that the team will now regain its confidence on the road after this result. It is also interesting to note that United are still unbeaten in all competitions so far this year.

Rooney Commits Future to United

Great news for anybody supporting Manchester United. Wayne Rooney has signed a contract committing his future to the club for the next five years.

In the first place it was absolutely shocking to hear that Wayne wanted to leave and now to hear that he has made sudden U-turn all in the space of a week makes this even more amazing.

Credit must be given to Sir Alex for how he handled the whole situation. He was determined put the whole situation to bed as soon as possible and get on with the more important matters of the club.

Wayne has already apologized to the manager and his team mates and its now time for him to start performing at the level that we all know he can. Hopefully the fans will all get behind him, as doing otherwise will be of no benefit to Wayne or Manchester United.

I've been hearing talk that the events of this week were staged and was some kind of a stunt, but again that's just speculation. I'm only surprised that a contract was signed as quickly as it was; which may just be an indication that this was not all about money as contract negotiations of such a nature generally take a hell of a time to sort out.

This whole development regarding Wayne's possible departure may not exactly have been a bad thought and might have done the club some good in the end. This may just be a wake up call for the Glaziers in more ways than one and might have also be a wake up call for the current squad of players at the club who may now may feel that there is a point to prove on the pitch.

Looking forward to the game on Sunday against Stoke !

Well Said Fergie

Sir Alex Ferguson's thoughts in his post match press conference, after Manchester United's 1 - 0 victory over Bursaspor in the Champions League, regarding Wayne Rooney's reasons for wanting to leave the club:

"To maintain the success at any football club is not a certainty, i.e. I always believe a four year cycle is probably the most you can achieve in terms of success. Very few teams can create more than that four year cycle. Last season we almost did it, we were one point short of winning the league for a record fourth time.

"We realised that to maintain that high consistency of being there challenging we had to inject youth into the club and we’ve been doing it for the last three or four years. We realised some years ago that Giggs, Scholes and Neville were never going to last forever and our policy is therefore to develop players within the club. We had a player that once said to me Rooney and Ronaldo weren’t good enough. Can you believe that? He actually said they weren’t good enough and he wasn’t prepared to wait until they were. That’s what happens, that’s the problem with potential – people don’t identify potential, they’re very poor at it. I’ve identified it all my life within young people – I know potential, I know how it can be developed and I know how to have faith in it - young people surprise you when you give them an opportunity. And that’s what this club is about. So when you see Manchester United at the moment with all these young players, you can’t see Manchester United three years ahead because you’re not thinking about that.

"We will invest in players when the time is right. This summer wasn’t the right time as far as I was concerned; there was no value for me. There was one player who we would have liked to have got but he chose another club. I don’t think he ever wanted to come to England anyway. Some players don’t want to leave their country, it’s a fact of life, some players are happy in their own country. Some players are happy to leave and Manchester United is always a big attraction for any player. If they don’t want to leave their country then we forget about it.

"In terms of the future of Manchester United there are a lot of things in my favour – history, the respect we have from people – if I told you how many agents phone my secretary every week about players who would love to play for us - and I don’t just mean run of the mill players, I’m talking about players at almost every club in the world - it would amaze you. It’s because this club still has that fantastic romance and respect from everyone.

"Sometimes you look in a field and you see a cow and you think it’s a better cow than the one you’ve got in your own field. It’s a fact. But it never really works out that way. It’s probably the same cow which is only as good as your own cow. We have to deal with that – some players like to think that it’s a better world somewhere else, it never really works like that.

"As I said, three Premier League titles in a row is fantastic and we were within one point of a record fourth. It didn’t happen for us and we didn’t like that and we want to do something about it. We’ll be okay – I’ve got every confidence in that. We have a structure at the club which is good, we have the right staff, the right manager, the right chief executive, he’s a brilliant man. There’s nothing wrong with Manchester United, not a thing wrong with it. So we’ll carry on."

What Rooney May Have Forgotten

Well it took just 24 hours for Rooney to respond after Sir Alex Ferguson had revealed the surprising news on Tuesday that the player wanted to leave the club.

Rooney issued the following statement:

"I met with David Gill last week and he did not give me any of the assurances I was seeking about the squad. I then told him I would not be signing a new contract.

"I was interested to hear what Sir Alex had to say yesterday and surprised by some of it. It is absolutely true as he said, that my agent and I have had a number of meetings with the club about a new contract. During those meetings in August I asked for assurances about the continued ability of the club to attract top players in the world."

Somehow I find it somewhat difficult to grasp what Rooney is really trying to imply with this statement. He's talking about Manchester United under the guidance of Sir Alex Ferguson who has a proven track record of rebuilding teams for over two decades now. Clearly, it would appear, that Wayne has forgotten the challenges that Manchester United were facing when he initially joined the club !

When Rooney first came to Manchester United in 2004, Manchester United had just lost the title to an Arsenal team that went undefeated over the entire 2003/2004 season. During that summer of 2004 English football welcomed Jose Mourinho who then joined Chelsea under the Ownership of Russian billionaire Roman Abramovic. With Mourinho at the helm and with Abramovic's millions, Chelsea went on to win back to back Premier League titles in 2004/2005 and 2005/2006.

This left Manchester United now without a trophy for three full seasons. During this barren period, Ruud Van Nistelrooy, David Beckham, Juan Sebastian Veron and Fabien Barthez were all sold, Laurent Blanc had retired and influential captain Roy Keane had left. These were all key players who were involved with Manchester United winning the Premier League title three times in four seasons, including the FA Cup and the League Cup all between 1999 to 2003.

In the background however, players such as John O'Shea, Darren Fletcher, Gerard Pique, Kieran Richardson and Guiseppe Rossi were youngsters that began to emerge from the youth ranks.

Cristiano Ronaldo was signed from total obscurity in 2003 and Wayne Rooney as a young emerging talent in 2004. The Glaziers eventually took control of the club in 2005 and Edwin Van der Sar, Alan Smith, Gabriel Heinze and Evra all joined the club during this time as well.

Interestingly, none of these players signed during this period were considered "top players". During this

time we were told that a dynasty had fallen - it was the beginning of the end, and that Alex Ferguson had lost the plot and should retire. What if the stars such as Scholes and Giggs had decided to leave the team during that time then ?

Well needless to say, the critics had been proven wrong and Manchester United with this group of unproven players had gone on to dominate the English League and Europe between seasons 2006-2009 and lost the league by just a single point last season. In total, Wayne Rooney has won three (3) Premier League titles, two (2) League Cup titles, two (2) Community Sheild titles, one (1) Champions League title and one (1) FIFA World Club Cup title. A total of nine winners' medals in six years.

So what is Wayne Rooney now talking about ?

Arsenal have been unable to win the Premiership since the invincibles in 2004 and have not won a single trophy since the FA Cup in 2005. Liverpool have been trying to regain the Premier League title for over twenty years now, and Chelsea, even though they have won recent titles are still unable to successfully dominate the English League like Manchester United has done.

To say United has no ambition and to suggest that the club is on the way down is totally unwarranted. Even with the Glaziers in control and with the massive debts which they have laden on the club, the future on pitch looks bright with Sir Alex Ferguson in charge.

Is This Goodbye Wayne ?

Just how did this story come about ? At the end of last season if anybody even hinted that Wayne Rooney would've been considering his future at Manchester United after just three months into the new campaign I would never believe it.

Lets trace back....

The media circus surrounding Rooney began earlier this summer during the World Cup where Rooney and the England team as whole had a poor showing at the tournament. Manchester United fans however were far less interested in those performances and were more concerned about him avoiding injury so that he could carry on from where he left off last season in the red shirt.

For some reason however, even after this season had started, Rooney still wasn't finding his form. Still, most Man United supporters should not have been too perturbed, as this was characteristic of Wayne Rooney ever since he joined the club - there was always a part of his season where he would have a quiet spell. The only difference now is that the limelight is totally on him and there is no Ruud Van Nistelrooy or Ronaldo to shoulder the burden. To make matters worse, in addition to his poor start to the season, allegations about his private life came out in the media in late September which brought about even more unwanted media attention.

At this point Sir Alex tried his best to protect the player by using injury as an excuse for dropping him from the team, only for Rooney to come out and contradict Ferguson about his injury. This scenario was now fuel for outrageous media stories and we were all led to believe that there was a rift between boss and player until Sir Alex revealed in his pre-match interview today that he has had absolutely no arguments with Rooney and there was no falling out. Not only that, but the shocking revelation that Rooney had actually intimated that he wanted to leave the club as early as August 14th. This was all before allegations about his private life and also before his poor form this season. This makes the whole story now even more complicated as we are now left to wonder what could have happened between the end of last season and early this summer that would cause him to be considering his future at the club. We are all totally bemused.

However, as Sir Alex has stated, he is still leaving the door open for him to reconsider which I believe most United fans will agree with. There is no doubt about his quality and he will eventually find his form, but if he still insists on going then its best we sell him as early as possible during the January transfer window. There is no point keeping a player who no longer wants to play for the club and as we all know... No player is greater than Manchester United Football Club.

Now that the news of Rooney's likely departure has surfaced, there have been some reports of possible destinations during the January transfer window. If he should leave I don't believe Ferguson should necessarily try to replace him with another striker as there are already enough at the club, but should possibly replace him with a creative/goalscoring midfielder and press forward with rebuilding the team as we have done several times before.

Possible Deals:

Manchester City

It seemed absurd at first, but I could live with him moving to City. They are willing to pay silly money for players and we would have no problem taking their money. I just don't see how he would fit into Mancini's plans.

Chelsea

This option is by no means far-fetched at all as Chelsea's attacking duo of Anelka and Drogba is aging. Abramovic would also be more than able to finance such a deal.

Tottenham

I just dont see a move to Spurs materializing as this would be a downward step, but it was reported that Harry Redknapp would be interested in signing him. A straight swap for both Modric and Bale and I believe most Man United would have no problem. But this option just doesn't seem feasible.

Real Madrid

Serious contenders in my opinion, but one still has to wonder how Rooney would fit into Mourinho's current plan. Some are suggesting that a swap deal with Benzema is possible but I am totally against such a move. I would rather see a swap deal with Kaka (even though he turned down the chance to move to England last season). Seems unlikely unless he's forced out.

Barcelona

Barcelona has been mentioned but I don't believe a move to the Catalan club could ever materialize anytime in the near future: 1) Barcelona currently has no money 2) They are saving to buy Cesc.

Inter Milan

I'm not sure if Inter would be able to afford him either. A swap deal with Sneijder however ? That would definitely be a good deal.

"The Hand of Niemeyer"

When I first saw this I couldn't help but laugh. Hertha Berlin defender Peter Niemeyer was caught on camera touching referee Bibiana Steinhaus in a somewhat inappropriate manner during a German Bundesliga match between Hertha Berlin and Alemannia on Monday. Niemeyer after the game indicated that he was actually attempting to pat the ref on her shoulder, however he failed to look where he his hand was aiming which resulted in him brushing her chest.

Interestingly, Bibiana Steinhaus is the first professional female German referee.