adminRooney’s situation will dominate Moyes’s first week of work — he officially starts at Old Trafford on Monday — with Arsenal ready to make a £20m bid for the striker and Chelsea also interested.
Rooney is said to be approaching the talks positively and is keen to start afresh with the new manager after his relationship with Sir Alex Ferguson soured last season, culminating in the former manager saying Rooney had asked to leave the club.
Rooney’s camp have denied this and the player himself is keen for the club to make it public that he never submitted an official transfer request, something Rooney feels could ruin his relationship with fans.
But Moyes will want to ensure that, if the player does not buy into his plans, they can come up with an exit strategy that avoids the acrimony that marred the end of their relationship at Goodison Park.
Moyes sued Rooney for damages following allegations made in the player’s autobiography after he was sold to United in 2004.
Nemanja Vidic, Nani and Monaco target Patrice Evra are all set to leave United this summer as Moyes shows he will be his own man after 26 years of Ferguson’s rule at Old Trafford, but Rooney’s potential departure would be the most complicated to sort out.
He has two years left on a £200,000-a-week contract and United will make it clear that any new offer from them would be on reduced terms.
He would prefer a move to Chelsea, but that is something United would be reluctant to sanction given they are likely to be title rivals next season.
French champions Paris Saint-Germain would meet United’s £30m asking price, but Rooney is reluctant to move there with his young family.
Arsenal may provide a compromise, provided Rooney does not see it as a step down.
United are also proceeding with plans to sign Ezequiel Garay, 26, who should be the first through the door this week, Thiago Alcantara, Kevin Strootman and Leighton Baines at a total cost of £70m.
But their intention to launch the Moyes era with a couple of high-profile signings may be delayed.
Benfica want more than £20m for centre-back Garay, with his former club, Real Madrid, entitled to a 50 per cent sell-on fee.
United will have to raise an initial £12m offer for Everton and England left-back Baines, while PSV and Holland Under-21 midfielder Strootman, 23, is not due to return from holiday for another week.
It promises to be a hectic baptism for Moyes, who has been shown support by United agreeing compensation with Everton to take in his trusted backroom team of Steve Round, Jimmy Lumsden and Chris Woods to Old Trafford.
There may also be a role for former United and Everton favourite Phil Neville, who wants to start a career in coaching.
United’s title-winning players will be taken through rigorous testing – a week before Manchester City’s England players are due back at their club — and they can expect a change in culture at their Carrington training ground under Moyes.
Though Ferguson attended every training session, he was happy to leave a lot of the details to Rene Meulensteen in his latter years, while Moyes will be more hands-on.
Alan Irvine, his long-time No 2 at Everton now in charge of the club’s academy, believes the United players will find Moyes’s attention to detail unsurpassed.
‘David is extremely hard working and thorough. He leaves nothing to chance. He is always concerned about the fine details and will think things through carefully before he makes decisions,’ said Irvine.
‘Training will be well prepared and he will continually question what he is doing and try to find the best way of working with a new group of players.
Barcelona held last-ditch talks with Thiago Alcantara last week in a bid to persuade the youngster to resist a move to Old Trafford — and judging by this latest tweet from the Spain midfielder they might have had the desired effect.
Relaxing by the pool with his brother Rafinha, who himself extended his contract at the Nou Camp by two years to 2016 earlier this week, Thiago tweeted: ‘I love Barcelona’.
The Barclays Premier League champions were believed to have agreed personal terms of £5,5m-a-year with the 22-year-old and were hopeful of securing a £17m deal.
But Thiago’s latest tweet appears to suggest he is in no hurry to leave the Spanish giants.
Barcelona are desperate to keep the 22-year-old and have given him assurances that he would be a key player in the future once Xavi and Iniesta show signs of age.
Thiago has left his father and representatives to hold talks with Barcelona while on holiday, and they were expected to tell the Catalan club that he wants to quit the Nou Camp for Old Trafford.
United have even gone to the effort of gathering character references on the player and are aware that both Manchester City and Bayern Munich could make a counter offer.
They are understood to have no interest in Napoli striker Edinson Cavani but are continuing to monitor Cristiano Ronaldo’s contract standoff with Real Madrid.
The former United star has been offered £12m a year net to stay at the Bernabeu but wants £5m more and is unhappy over a recent comment by Real president Florentino Perez that ‘everything has a limit’. — Mailonline.
Online Reporter