• Comment

Risk-taker Rooney threatens to poison the well

Wayne Rooney is staying at Manchester United © Getty Images

Enlarge

Related Links

• News: Ferguson calls for focus after Rooney resolution
  
• News: Rooney deal sends message - Gill
  

"If one player in the team does not trust the others, he should not play in the team. I trust everyone, I know we can win." That was Patrice Evra's unequivocal verdict after Wayne Rooney released a statement confirming his desire to leave Manchester United due to fears over their competitiveness.

Less than two days later, one of the most shocking U-turns in recent memory has seen Rooney pledge the next five years of his career to United. Ostensibly, this is a show of faith from the England striker in the Red Devils' squad, having been seduced by Sir Alex Ferguson's reassurances.

But the accusations will still fly around Rooney's head, with the most cynical suggesting that his desire to exit was no more than a ploy in order to secure a more lucrative contract. Does a picture of Ferguson and Rooney standing together in gleeful contentment conceal a murkier truth? Any conclusions at this stage are no more than conjecture but, whatever Rooney's intentions have been, he has enacted a high-risk strategy - and forced Ferguson to follow suit.

Relations in the dressing room will inevitably have been poisoned. Beyond Evra, Fletcher and Vidic made it clear that they were less than enamoured with Rooney's comments on the state of the squad. Whatever Ferguson told the England forward in their showdown meetings, it is not much of a stretch to suggest that the United boss reassured him that new recruits are imminent.

Any transfer activity could do much to soothe the gravest concerns of United fans, many of whom felt that losing the striker would only prove disastrous if the debt-ridden club did not have the funds to buy a replacement. Ferguson's comments over the summer, indicating there was no value in the market, did not wash well with supporters who saw Rafael van der Vaart join Tottenham for £8 million - not much more than United shelled out for the unheralded Bebe.

But, even if Rooney has forced United's hand in the market, fans are not going to welcome him back with open arms - and there can be no doubt that Ferguson has accepted this as collateral damage. To that extent, his decision to stand by Rooney reflects the acknowledgment that this is a side propped up to a significant degree by the striker - certainly, there was a sense last season that Rooney's goals were masking deficiencies in the side.

In all of this, irrespective of how the matter is spun by United, there is the feeling that player power has prevailed, and that Ferguson has been forced to share the burden of risk. The veteran boss, normally characterised by his ruthlessness, has apparently surrendered in one manner or other, either by allowing Rooney to get away with sniping at his team-mates, or by bending to his contractual manipulations.

Ian Holloway hinted that Ferguson has come off second best during his impassioned plea for a change in the balance of power in the game. "I'm looking at Alex Ferguson and thinking: 'What a magnificent manager. How can he handle this?' How he feels about Manchester United, how proud he is, yet Wayne Rooney or his agent can now manufacture a situation like this."

Returning to Evra's statement, the clear subject is the "team", the collective unit. But the sense is that the winner here is Rooney, rather than Manchester United.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.