Jose Mourinho has told Manchester United skipper Wayne Rooney to thrash any plan of moving away from The Theater of Dreams, adding that he will not grant permission for the England international footballer to leave Old Trafford.
Image: Wayne Rooney
Notwithstanding rumors that the 31-year-old has lost a claim to first team action with the Red Devils, and a reported bid from his former club Everton, Mourinho says he needs an experienced veteran like Rooney in his team.
The Special One says Rooney won’t be going back to the club he left in 2004, as he plans to take United up in the Premier League table.
“I know he can still play at the highest level. I know he’s the type of player I need,” Mourinho said of the versatile player who’s widely reported to be frustrated at the club.
“He can play at the top level. I can’t say what’s going to happen when he’s 32, 3, 4, 5 but what I can say is that he’s a very good player, a very important player for us. He’s going nowhere.
“We like him, he likes us. He’s not happy in the last matches because he was on the bench but I think he is even unhappier when he’s not on the bench because he’s been injured and has to stay in the stands.
“There are no problems at all. He’s my captain. He is the team captain. He behaves like that.
“In all my career I have had just a couple of players, they didn’t want to play and sometimes they wanted to hide when things got hotter.”
Image: Jose Mourinho
According to a report from News 24, Ronald Koeman, who’s the current manager at Everton, says his club will gladly receive Rooney with open arms if Mourinho ever lets him go away from Old Trafford.
The midfielder left Goodison park as a 19-year-old in a 20 million transfer in the summer of 2004.
“Even when we get one time the possibility that Rooney is an option for Everton, I’m very pleased,” said Koeman.
“I am not at United, I don’t see sessions and every game. It is a decision of the manager of Manchester United.
“But he is 31, he is not finished, he still has two or three years at least at the highest level.
“Wayne Rooney is a top player and, of course, if there is one day when he is available of course we would like to have him but it is too early and I don’t like to speak about players who are under contract at other teams.”
“I think he’s a human being like everybody else. He has family, like everybody else,” Mourinho said in defense of the hard times he [Rooney] is experiencing at the club.
“He has kids, the oldest one at an age where he can read, he can feel, he gets affected by that.
“It’s just human nature but I think he’s a big boy, a big character. He copes with the situation.”
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