Rooney rejects China mega bucks deal

Wayne Rooney, Manchester United and England captain will stay at Old Trafford until the end of the season after rejecting China’s mega riches.
Wayne Rooney’s decision to stay at Old Trafford – at least until the end of the season – is a move that will ensure his legacy at Manchester United will not be tarnished.
For make no mistake, if the United and England captain had walked out three months before the end of the season for a mega-money switch to the Chinese Super League, his reputation would almost certainly have been trashed.
And it would have been a self-inflicted wound.
The hysteria of recent days over the likelihood of him leaving in the midst of a season in which United are still fighting on four fronts would have been nothing to the deluge of abuse that would surely have been poured over him if – as United and England captain – he’d walked out on English football.
Rooney’s always been a fighter. His instinct has always been to come out battling when his back has been against the wall.
Yet, if he’d taken the Yuan that was surely on offer from one of China’s awash-with-money Super League clubs, it would have appeared he’d thrown in the towel like a broken boxer.
It would have seemed he was accepting he no longer has the hunger for the fight and his career at the top is over.
Realistically, that was never going to happen – however much he must be hurting that his status is no longer what it was in the Premier League and beyond.
Maybe he’s no longer the explosive star of old but at 31, Rooney still has plenty to offer United – at least in the remaining months of the season.
Just weeks after becoming United’s all-time leading goalscorer after eclipsing Sir Bobby Charlton’s record of 249 goals which stood for 43 years, was Rooney really going to risk inflicting, perhaps, irreparable damage to his status as the club’s greatest goalscorer?
From the day he walked into United back in September, 2004 and announced his arrival at Old Trafford with a mind-blowing Champions League hat-trick against Fenerbahce Rooney has broken records for fun.
The only milestone he’s chasing now at United is longevity and although he’s turned his back on China for now, the odds are short that he’ll start next season at the club.
That’s why going out the right way and drawing the final curtain on a spectacular career at United is perhaps the most important last act of his remaining time at the club.
And by ending the speculation of a mid-season China bail-out, Rooney can at least now leave next summer through the front door of Old Trafford with his held held high.
And his reputation as one of United’s finest intact.
Forever.