adminManchester United hope star striker Wayne Rooney will finally put his name to a new £300,000-a-week contract at Old Trafford in the coming days.Rooney and United officials have been in talks about a new five-and-half-year deal for weeks after the 28-year-old finally gave up on his dream of joining Chelsea.
The new contract has not yet been finalised or signed and Rooney is currently in Dubai on a training break with manager David Moyes and the rest of the United squad.
However, it is understood that talks are on the brink of being concluded successfully and that an announcement could well be made before United play Crystal Palace in the Barclays Premier League next weekend.
Rooney’s basic salary will remain pretty much the same as in his current £250,000-a-week deal but it is understood that the performance-related incentives built in to it will take it closer to the £300,000-a-week mark if United go on to be as successful as they were during the Sir Alex Ferguson years.
Rooney’s new deal will be for four-and-half years, meaning that he can expect to remain at Old Trafford for the best years of his career.
When the England striker does sign, it will represent the first major success of Moyes’ reign. Rooney was desperate to leave for Stamford Bridge last summer after the breakdown in his relationship with Ferguson but Moyes has restored the former Everton player’s confidence and faith in the future of the club.
Rooney may well be rewarded with the captaincy at Old Trafford next season, given that players like Nemanja Vidic, Rio Ferdinand and Patrice Evra are all set to leave.
Meanwhile, Fulham made a late, desperate throw of the dice in a bid to avoid relegation when they sacked Rene Meulensteen on Friday and brought in former Bayern Munich coach Felix Magath as his successor.
The London club, bottom of the Premier League and four points from safety with 12 matches left, only appointed Meulensteen on December 1 when fellow Dutchman Martin Jol was fired.
“Felix is an accomplished manager with multiple honours in the Bundesliga and a hunger to replicate his success with Fulham,” owner Shahid Khan said in a statement. “Our club has shown promise in recent matches but the fact is we have not won a league match since January 1.”
Khan, an American businessman and the owner of NFL franchise Jacksonville Jaguars, bought Fulham from Mohamed Al Fayed in July.
“Given our form, we can no longer merely hope that our fortunes will finally turn,” said the owner. “With 12 matches remaining and at least four points separating us from safety we certainly can no longer post empty results. Action was required.”
The Fulham statement made no mention of Meulensteen but the Dutchman told the BBC: “They have hit the panic button on emotion and fear but hey ho, that’s football. I knew the owners were freaking out a little bit that there was the possibility of the club going down. The way forward that we have discussed with the club was about longevity and in this case it is clearly an act of fear.”
Meulensteen was assistant to Alex Ferguson at Manchester United between 2007-13 before having an ill-fated 16-day spell in charge of Russian club Anzhi Makhachkala last year. Fulham chief executive Alistair Mackintosh said: “The opportunity to bring in a manager with the experience of Felix Magath would typically be unlikely at this point in the season.
“However, Felix relishes this challenge. He is very impressed with our squad and commitment by Mr Khan and his confidence is precisely what we need over these final three months of the season.”
Mackintosh was heavily involved in Fulham’s transfer business last month. The club brought in seven players including their former striker Clint Dempsey, Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Lewis Holtby and Greece striker Kostas Mitroglou for a club record fee that media reports put at 11 million pounds ($18.1 million). – Sportsmail.
Online Reporter