Manchester City

The mega-rich Manchester club are believed to be the favourites to sign the 24-year-old whose agent told United chief executive David Gill he would not be extending his contract at Old Trafford this summer (Man Utd 4/1 – Premier League Outright 2010/11).

Reds manager Sir Alex Ferguson kept the news in-house in the hope that the player might undergo a change of heart, but has now been forced to go public after a week of speculation leading up to Wednesday’s Champions League clash with Bursaspor.

Rooney, who memorably scored a hat-trick against another Turkish outfit – Fenerbahce – in 2004, will not be in United’s line-up this week after Ferguson declared he has an ankle injury.

“It was terribly disappointing that he wanted to leave. We just couldn’t understand it,” said the Scottish boss.

“We have to keep the door open because he is such a good player.

“We have done nothing but help him since he came to this club, that is why this is such a mystery to us. We’ve helped him with his private life and other matters.

“So we’re as bemused as anyone can be because we can’t understand why he would want to leave a club that is successful as we are in British football.”

City, who have ambitions to become the biggest club in world football, are the obvious candidates to make the highest bid (Man City Multiple Trophies).

They have links to Rooney’s agent, Paul Stretford, through the player’s sponsor Nike and an unnamed official has already spoken about the situation across the city.

“We hadn’t discussed signing Rooney until the last week because we never thought he would be available, just like we have never discussed signing Lionel Messi from Barcelona,” they told the Guardian.

“Now we know he wants to leave United we’re obviously going to monitor it closely.”

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