Definitely the most powerful. Take decades of winning to become the biggest. Chelsea still haven't managed it after 6 or 7 years.

city will win the premiership soon...... maybe even this season.

im an everton fan and i think the top 4 is wide open this season.

its hard to pick a top 4 this season so far.

Chelsea and city are the 2 best teams at the min.

dont think nal and utd are that far away from the rest of the pack this season.

Kinda stuck in the middle there. We're unbeaten in 17 games. We've had a few games we should have closed out this season. I'd agree that City and Chelsea may be a step above so far. But think us and Arsenal aren't that far behind. We don't know if the Rooney saga has affected the team at all? Now it's out in the open we can hopefully kick on. Expect a huge show of support for Sir Alex tommorrow.

If you all hate scousers clap your hands.

then reality is that utd is a club in decline... rooney is leaving because he doesn't like being the player everyone is relying on.

big blow for utd...however you try and dress it up.

Rooney, or more likely Rooney's agent, are looking to make this his last big pay day. Even though he's only 24 (25 next week), he's 28/29 in footballing years - he's been playing top flight football for 8 years now.

There is no way in the world he'd state he wanted to leave Manchester Utd unless he had something else lined up. He won't play for Utd again and will sign for City in January.

which season

Ive no problem with Rooney leaving, he's been inconsistent ever since he joined United, last season in the prem he was brilliant but his form was in and out prior to that. He's never really been a force in europe for United as it was Ronaldo that carried us to our last 2 champions league finals.

You could bring in 3 top players if Fergie was allowed to spend the money on players, Luis Suarez, Wesley Sneijder and Rafael Van Der Vaart just to name 3 would make United stronger than they would be if Rooney stayed.

The biggest problem is the Glazers, any possible transfer fee would more than likely go to pay off interest on the loans plus i believe Everton get 25% of any profit above what United paid Everton for him.

Must read rlfans..... www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/footba ... orres.html

Must read rlfans..... www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/footba ... orres.html

A couple of things have been overlooked in all of this -

1) At the end of this season, Wayne Rooney would be able to buy out the remaining year of his contract on a "Webster Ruling" allowing such a thing for players who have one year left at a club & have been there over 4 years to pay to the club the last year of their wages plus a nominal compensation fee, somewhere in the region of £5-6 million in Rooney's case.
2) Next season UEFA rulings come into place which mean that the days of the ridiculous transfer fee will be over. Clubs will have to be financially responsible & show that they have a maximum 3 year loss of £36.8million from 2011/12 or be expelled from UEFA competitions. In other words, teams will have to recoup monies paid out on transfers by selling other players & the transfer market for the Galactico type player will stagnate almost overnight.

All told, United's best chance of cashing in on Rooney is in January & with the family's stated reluctance to leave the North West (especially with the proximity to Colleen's sister), surely City are his only real option?

The wbester ruling may not apply, only if he leaves the country according to SSN reporter James Cooper,

a new low?

Certainly the Webster ruling has only been invoked on players who have changed league's but I can't find any reference preventing such a ruling in a move within a league...

I have lived in Manchester for 8 years. I have been a season ticket holder at Manchester United for 10. I work in the city centre of Manchester - I can see Old Trafford from one side of the floor on which I work at the City of Manchester Stadium on the other. I work with lots of Manchester United supporters. I have never heard anyone call Anderson the new Zidane. Ever. Or Gerrard. And as for Fabregas, that's a line in a song that rhymes with 'he ***** brass'.

So tell me another one numbnuts.

Manchester United supporters living & working in the city of Manchester? Pull the other one...

Hes originally from London

I know lots and lots of utd fans and i have never heard this said ever... in fact not even close.

It's one of the biggest myths going that there is no-one in Manchester that follows United. United has more out of towners than other clubs but there are two very simple reasons for that. One, their relative success and two, the size of the fanbase (which themselves are interlinked). You do see more man city shirts around town these days just as you saw less when they were crap. Perfectly understandable.

just a few points to state the bleedin' obvious.

1/ Rooney is not a world class player- his performances for England prove this.
2/ Rooney can only be classed as world-class, when he learns discipline.
3/ His agent is reported to be getting upto £10m out of the deal.

Now who do you think had a word in Rooney's ear?

Alex Ferguson and Jose Mourinho must be wrong then.

Also some will have to go and tell Maradonna that he wasn't world class.

Maradonna was world-class, his performances, and the results of Argentina prove this.

but he never learned any discipline.

You said Rooney cant be classed as world class until he learns discipline.

Are the rules different for different players?

Maradonna was disciplined till he went to Naples and got caught up with the local mafiosa, prostitutes and cocaine. his head pretty much went after that.

The point about English players in the premiership, is that they play alongside quality foreign players, who make them look good. eg Ferdinand and Vidic. take out Vidic and ferdinand looks like a rabbit in headlights. But put them in the same team, ie England, then all can see how good they really are.

United Fan

Rooney is world class, so any United fans now doing a U-Turn on him are looking a bit silly. As for only being world class on the strength of his England performances, this is also as England are bobbins. Are you saying Ryan Giggs is not now / never been world class? It's just a daft thing to say.

However, as good as he is, I will happily be glad to see the back of any player who does not want to play for the club, and will not be upset if he goes. I doubt very much that all this has anything to do with money. Rooney will have more money already than he knows what to do with and I never get the impression he is a grabber (other than a granny grabber). This is something else. Either disillusioned at OT, or wife ultimatum, or fall out big time with the club.

Going to City would be a mistake for him in my opinion (pehaps because I want it to be), and I can see him going to Chelsea to be honest.

More importantly for United in the aftermath of this is how whatever money is spent, and on who/what. We cannot afford to not replace like for like. We are still missing Ronaldo's replacement and were lucky to be as close to Chelsea as we were for 2009/10.

Maradona had terrible discipline problems right throughout his career...... it didn't stop him from being the best player on the planet.

Rooney is world class because the people who know most about what makes a player world class, say he is.

I think it's something away from football that's making him change his mind, he does seem to look preoccupied. They say a change is as good as a rest