Wayne Rooney contract talks to be stepped up by Manchester United as court case ends

Rooney, currently on holiday following his participation at the World Cup with England, was instead ordered to pay a 'restititional remedy' of £90,475.25 to Proactive, who had sued for unpaid commission, by Judge Brendan Hegarty QC at a hearing at Manchester Mercantile Court on Thursday.

The conclusion of the court case has removed a significant obstacle preventing United from thrashing out a new long-term contract for the 24 year-old, whose £90,000-a-week deal expires in June 2012. Although United are confident that negotiations with the player and his advisers will pass smoothly, securing last season's 34-goal top scorer to a long-term deal is regarded as crucial by manager.

Sir Alex Ferguson and the club's owners, the Glazer family. Rooney's disappointing performances at the World Cup have done little to dent his reputation as one of Europe's leading players and Ferguson expects him to rediscover his best form at Old Trafford.

Ferguson said: "I don't expect a hangover, but I think there'll still be disappointment in the lad. I think all the players coming back from the World Cup who didn't do well, who didn't reach their expectations may feel that they've missed something. But that's because the World Cup's only once every four years."

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United linked with Balotelli

The talented but temperamental teenager has been linked with a move to the Premier League this summer with City reported to have had an initial offer rejected. Inter president Massimo Moratti insisted earlier this week that Balotelli would remain at Giuseppe Meazza under new manager Rafa Benitez.

Technical director Marco Branca backed the stance of the Nerazzurri supremo, but revealed that the interest from former Inter boss Roberto Mancini was being matched from across Manchester.

Branca is quoted in The Sun as saying: "We are fortunate to have good players so it's normal big teams in Europe are thinking about them. "There is interest from Manchester United and from Manchester City in Balotelli. "But it is very early to say if there will be any business done. "Inter are in first position and we have to think about our future."

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World Cup 2010: Wayne Rooney was crushed by burden of expectation

Sir Alex Ferguson believes Wayne Rooney's poor performance at the World Cup was principally down to the weight of expectation on the striker. The 24-year-old failed to score in four matches for England, who were eliminated in the second round after a heavy defeat by Germany.

Rooney had been widely expected to demonstrate the form for England which brought him 34 goals for Manchester United this season but never looked at his best. Ferguson has denied that Rooney was hampered by an ankle injury suffered during the run-in with United but has admitted that pressure played a part.

"There was such expectation," United's manager said. "There was talk that he was going to be the player of the tournament. Don't forget, that was the prelude to the whole thing. He was going to be the star, he was going to outshine them all: [Lionel] Messi, [Cristiano] Ronaldo. So that level of expectation comes into it. And he's not got great experience of the World Cup really. You wait, though. In four years' time you will see a different player."

Ferguson was so concerned about Rooney's state of mind after England's dismal goalless draw with Algeria that he broke off from a holiday in France to call his player. He encouraged the striker not to be affected by a "debilitating" atmosphere in the squad and to relax. Rooney had reacted to the booing that greeted England's performance against Algeria by criticising the fans, though he swiftly apologised.

Ferguson believes the troubles afflicting Rooney were a problem for the other members of Fabio Capello's team, who reached the tournament with nine wins from 10 qualifiers. "I watched England's games and I was baffled by what I saw, too, but I wasn't totally surprised," he told SunTalk Radio. "There are a lot of factors – the burden of expectation, the fact they have been away a long time and the hard English season.

"They had an easy passage to South Africa. They qualified from a group which you'd have to say was a million to one that they wouldn't qualify ... Maybe it would have been better if England had been in a tougher group. Their build-up was huge. I feel for them because it was a burden."

Ferguson said Germany had an edge over England because of the Bundesliga's winter break and the country's tradition of success in international tournments.

"The history they've got is quite incredible," he said. "That organised mentality they have, the belief in themselves, it carries them a long way. None of the English team have any experience of playing in a semi-final at a World Cup. The German mentality is 'we are always in the semi-finals'.

"Plus the fact they get a month's rest in January, it must help. All the England team are playing in [the Premier League] so they're all affected." Ferguson is tipping Holland to win the World Cup. "They haven't played at their best yet and are in the semi-finals."

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Manchester United were interested in signing David Villa - Sir Alex Ferguson

Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has declared that he wanted to secure the services of Spain striker David Villa prior to the start of the World Cup.

Villa has been in amazing goal scoring form and has scored five goals in the World Cup so far. He is the leading goal scorer at the tournament.

Widely considered as one of the best strikers in the world, Villa left Valencia to join Barcelona on May 19 for a transfer fee of £35 million.

Ferguson has admitted that he was keen on signing Villa, but the player always wanted to play for Barcelona. According to Ferguson it would have been almost impossible to convince the player to sign for United as he always wanted to play alongside international team-mates like Andres Iniesta and Xavi. Ferguson said “Prior to the World Cup we considered making a move for David Villa, however the player had already made up his mind and wanted to play for only Barcelona.”

“It doesn’t come as a surprise given the quality Barcelona possesses and every player wants to play for them. Also he was interested in playing alongside Xavi and Iniesta, so it was almost impossible to convince him to play for us.” “Right now we are not considering signing any new player as I don’t think there is quality out there at the moment. I am happy with my squad and we will win trophies next season for sure.”

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Manchester United prepared to sell Berbatov and Anderson to secure Benzema

The Spanish AS newspaper reported that the Frenchman would cost Manchester United 30 million euros, five million less than Real Madrid paid Olympique Lyon for his services a year ago. Benzema, 22, had a rather disappointing first season at the Bernabeu, scoring just nine goals in 32 appearances. His lack of first team action led to his exclusion from Raymond Domenech’s French World Cup squad.

He has been linked with Manchester United for a while, and there have even been reports that Real would be willing to include him in a swap deal to secure Nemanja Vidic ’s signature. Benzema’s contract at Real expires in 2015.

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Evans key to Manchester United's future, says Owen

Michael Owen last night tipped Jonny Evans to be a cornerstone of the Manchester United defence for years to come.

United striker Owen, battling to be fit for the new season, sees the Northern Ireland defender.

As the obvious choice to eventually succeed Rio Ferdinand or Nemanja Vidic. Evans (22) has been steadily establishing himself at Old Trafford since making his debut less.

Than three years ago. “Jonny is the future of Manchester United. Obviously Rio is in his 30s now and has.

A good few years left but Jonny has the potential to be every bit as good and commanding as Rio,” stated Owen.

“Jonny could play a full season at United and not look out of place but if he keeps improving he can be one of the key players at United for years to come.

“Jonny’s a very good player who has come up through the ranks and has been held in high regard his whole career.

“Ferdinand and Vidic are obviously top class centre halves so it says a lot for Jonny that he comes in when one of those guys is out and does so well.

“Last season we had quite a lot of injuries at centre half — we even played Michael Carrick and Darren Fletcher there,” he added.

Owen made his name as a teen sensation with Liverpool and England, and is well placed to assess Roy Hodgson’s appointment as the new Anfield boss.

“Roy Hodgson has got a big job to do at Anfield but he’s been around a long time and I think he’s the right man for the job,” he said. “He will need to steady the ship as there will have been a big clear-out of staff at Anfield after Rafa Benitez’s departure.”

In recent years, Owen’s career has been blighted by injury and there were a few raised eyebrows when Sir Alex Ferguson took a punt on the striker by bringing him to Old Trafford last year.

But the 30-year-old is hoping to be fit for the start of the season after his recent setback.

“I got injured just before the end of the season and I’ve had an operation to try and fix the problem plus a bit of rehab. It looks as though I’m going to miss the first little bit of pre-season.

“I would like to think that about half way through pre-season I would be ready to play but I should be joining the rest of the team in training in the next couple of weeks. So I should be fit to start the season,” he said.

Owen, who scored that wonder goal for England against Argentina as an 18-year-old in the 1998 World Cup, was baffled by his country’s failure in South Africa, particularly Wayne Rooney’s lacklustre displays.

“I think Wayne would admit that he wasn’t at the top of his game. But as a striker you need plenty of the ball and you need good service to play well. Wayne didn’t get enough of that.

“However he got enough of the ball to play a bit better than he did but there were circumstances that meant England didn’t play well as a team. Maybe Wayne was tired or England were tired as a group, or it was down to formations, whatever.

We could look at quite a few of the players and say they didn’t perform to the best of their ability. They are top players who show that every week so we need to get to the bottom of how we can make them play as well for England as they do for their clubs,” he explained. And Owen is demanding that goalline technology be introduced in the wake of Frank Lampard’s ‘goal’ against Germany.

He added: “It’s not a question of if technology should be brought, it’s a question of when, certainly in terms of goalline technology. “Then you’d look at the (Thierry) Henry handball against the Republic of Ireland and the (Carlos) Tevez goal against Mexico and decide if we should use technology for that as well.”

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Manchester City Sign Spain’s Winger Midfielder David Silva, Yaya Toure Next

Manchester City’s buying spree just does not seem to end. They spent millions last season and brought in some big names such as Adebayor from Arsenal, Carlos Tevez from Manchester United, Santa Cruz from Blackburn Rovers, Kolo Toure from Arsenal, Patrick Vieira from Inter Milan and plenty more, but money does not guarantee success, atleast not instant success. That was proven when Man City could not end the season 4th, which was their target at the start.

This season, they have once again started splashing the cash and started their summer shopping with the big name signing of Spanish left winger David Silva. The Valencia man was on the radar of a number of big European clubs and no less than Man City’s neighbours and old rivals Manchester United.

Silva was an integral part of the Spain side that won the Euro Championship in 2008, but has had just one appearance in the World Cup so far. However, he is not bothered as he is excited to join Manchester City, after agreeing to a 25 million pound move from Valencia.

The left sided midfielder has signed a 5 year deal with Man City and will be heading to England once he is done with the World Cup. The deal is believed to be about 160,000 pounds worth. It certainly is a big signing for Roberto Mancini, the Man City manager, as Silva had not only been pursued by Manchester United, but Real Madrid and Chelsea were also showing immense interest in the 24 year old.

Silva, who was visibly very pleased with the move, said that first of all he is very thankful to his former club Valencia, the club’s millions of fans, and of course his teammates and team staff, as they always stood by him and helped him grow as a player and a person. He said he has enjoyed 6 fantastic years at Valencia, and will never forget the fact that Valencia discovered him as a footballer and made him into the player he is today.

He added that the time had come for him to seek a new challenge, and at Manchester City he can be part of something fantastic, as he believes that the club is on its way up and will certainly be challenging the likes of Manchester United and Chelsea in the coming seasons. He said he will play for Man City with utmost commitment and determination as he has done for Valencia over the years, and will do all he can to bring trophies to the club.

He went on to say that there had been number of speculations surrounding his transfer in the British and English media, but now that he has joined Man City, all that would finally be put to rest and he would be able to concentrate on performing his best for Spain in the World Cup.

Silva’s new manager Mancini said that he has no doubt that Silva is one of the best midfielders in Europe, and would add a lot of quality and depth to his side. Mancini added that a signing like Silva would show the rest of the clubs that Man City has the power to attract big players, and it would attract further such names to the club.

The signing of Silva is expected to be followed by another big name, Yaya Toure from Barcelona, as Man City continues to splash the cash, while Jerome Boateng has already put pen to paper after agreeing to a transfer from Hamburg believed to be worth 11 million pounds.

On the other hand, Valencia would be making plans of making a few buys of their own in the transfer window. Following David Villa’s move to Barcelona, this is the 2nd big exit for them, and even though these two will leave a big void, the amount of cash they have gathered from the transfer may help them get some big names from Europe.

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