Listen To Ollie!

It's a very strange rant to be honest. His point about the strength of players is right but he wrongly compares players to material goods to make his point and he rather misses the point about the age 24 threshold, applying it incorrectly to the Rooney situation.

In my opinion, players should be free to move clubs when they reach the end of their contract and to suggest that any club can own a player like they can a car or a house is wrong.

Also, he also seems to think that the Bosman rule was introduced by FIFA and UEFA rather than it being an EU law which UEFA have to abide by whether they like it or not.

But he makes a very valid point that a club can approach a player and say: "Let your contract run down and we will pay you what we would have had to pay your club in a transfer fee instead"; with no opportunity for the developing club to recoup their outlay.

But then again, why didn't Man Utd sign Rooney to a 10-year contract if they were so sure that he was the cornerstone for their future? Yes they pay him enormous, obscene amounts of money, but he is a major star who draws crowds, sells replica shirts and is the face of the club. And if you look at the amount of the debt that the Glazers have saddled the club with, maybe Rooney doesn't earn that much after all.

As it happens, I agree with Rooney's stance:the £40m+ that the club are paying annually in interest payments (and that doesn't reduce the debt) could be spent on star players to strengthen the team but instead, and despite what Lord Ferg would have us believe, the team is getting weaker by the year. What is there to encourage him to stay at Old Trafford if he wants to win the Champions League, or even the Premier League again? If Gill can give him the names of three top players who Man Utd have agreed to buy in January, maybe he'd be happy to sign a new contract, but why would Rooney want to play in the Europa League (at best) from 2013 just because the Glazer family's US shopping mall business is collapsing underneath them?

Looking at the Liverpool situation, you have to feel that Man Utd are next: they could end up going into administration, being deducted 9 points and having to sell all their star players to survive.

I certainly wouldn't be keen to sign a long term contract with Man Utd at the moment, although if Stretford were clever he should announce that Rooney has signed a two-year contract to play for FC United from his 32nd birthday to show how down with he United fans he really is.

Calling "Shrek" the face of Man Utd is a little scary to say the least.

Perhaps "Our Wayne" has just realised that signing for Real Madrid would mean living in Spain, rather like David Unsworth when he found out that on signing for Aston Villa that they were located in Birmingham or Ian Rush saying that living in Turin was "like living in a foreign country"

I was reminded of his "love a granny" exploits this morning whilst down the Nags Head Market when an old geezer said to this rather tasty looking stall holder of a certain age herself I might add............... "Caw, if you were a bit younger I'd give you a good seein' to Dahlin"

'If you were a bit younger mate, you might be capable' was her answer!