Rooney becomes the highest paid player in the Premier League: £250000 per week!

The news that wayne Rooney has signed a new contract with the club for the next five years was a sigh of relief for many Manchester United fans. The star striker around which Ferguson has built his team would have left a huge void at the club, probably larger than that of Cristiano Ronaldo. Reports have now started emerging about the details of the contract, although no official confirmation is expected to be forthcoming, as both Rooney and the club agreed to keep the contents of the agreement secret. The Daily Mirror is reporting that Rooney is now on £250000-a-week, meaning that the new contract is worth £13 million per season, for a grand total of £65 million over the upcoming five seasons.

Rooney is now facing the challenge of winning back the support of fans after they were understandably unimpressed with his comments. Rooney is now the highest paid player in the Premiership, earning more than Manchester City’s Yaya Toure who is on £220000 per week. Ironically, it was reported that fans gathered outside his home and threathened him that if he signed for Manchester City, they would kill him. Rooney is presently undergoing treatment for an ankle injury, which, according to Ferguson but negated by Rooney, has hampered his performances this season. He should be fit for the Manchester derby to be played on the 10th November at the City of Manchester Stadium.

Rooney reportedly turned down an £85 million offer from Manchester City when he signed a new contract to stay at Old Trafford. Wayne stated that the club administration had convinced him that there would be the right investment in the team to be successful in the coming seasons. In fact, another report claims that the new contract has a break clause which states that if the Glazers fail to invest appropriately in the team, Rooney would be able to leave United for only £30 million at the end of each of the upcoming five seasons. This type of clause is very common in Spain although not much in England, and it allows Rooney the freedom to move if certain targets stipulated in the contract are not met.

There were not many teams which could afford Rooney if he had stood by his decision to move. Chelsea was not one of the teams which would have moved for the played, as the team has a policy of not spending more than £20 million on players, and not paying them more than £80000 per week in salaries. It seems that the only team that could realistically afford Rooney was Manchester City, and personally I cannot imagine what would have happened if Rooney switched to the blue side of Manchester.