The only reason the press have made such a huge thing of this for half the season is because Rooney is "England's great hope"...
Virtually all Real Madrid's chances in the first leg against United came due to Rooney's failings... Welbeck and Giggs did far better jobs in 2 of the positions Rooney was considered for and Nani got selected to play on the other flank. If you can't compete against a 50 year old Giggs, Welbeck and fudging Nani, you can't really command wages or a transfer fee of one of the best players in the world.
Rooney is a streaky striker, he seems to only score for half of most seasons even if he doesn't get injured. I remember reading Redcafe a couple of years ago on one of Rooney's barren runs and seeing 80% of them agree that he will at one point during every season go through a stage of being less clinical than Heskey.
As far as his future goes, if United say "ok, you can leave, we'll accept a bid of 35-40 million", I'm not sure what sort of clubs will come in for him.
Running down a list of possibles:
Barca - too expensive, not technically good enough and too inconsistent... They don't need a huge name to be a backup to Messi anyway, they have issues in other areas of the pitch that need attention, even if they do have to replace Villa.
Bayern Munich - They just bought Gotze for less than Rooney would cost. They're looking likely to get Lewandowski for far cheaper than Rooney would cost. I can't see Guardiola considering Rooney for anything other than the #9 position and though Rooney on form could play that position, when he's out of form and loses most of his technical ability I think Guardiola wouldn't have the patience to do what Fergie does and try to shoehorn Rooney in the team to regain form. I don't think Rooney would be a starter and why spend that much money on another non starter?
Real Madrid - Without knowing who will manage there next year, it's hard to say. Real Madrid could get far more clinical strikers for Rooney for cheaper. Rooney's problem again is that he'd only really be considered for the number 9 position. I don't see why anyone would pay 35-40 mil for a player that is nowhere near the level that a 35-40 mil striker should be at.
Dortmund - Too expensive by far.
PSG - A good fit, especially if big nose leaves. I haven't watched them that much in the league this year, but from the few times I have and the matches I've seen of theirs in the CL, they could use someone of Rooney's talents. In addition to the amazing young players they have, they also went for Beckham, so they don't mind getting publicity even if it means paying for a big name instead of going for a value for money option instead.
Italy - To be honest I don't know how the teams there are coping with FFP... The Milan sides have obviously not coped well and don't seem like they have very much money to spend. Napoli look like they're replacing one of the best forwards in the world with a 9 million player, so it doesn't look like there is that much money in Italy... Juve are going to get Llorente and there are rumours of Ibra too.
Emirates Marketing Project - If there is a team that has liked to spend a lot of money on an English player in the recent past, City is that team. They were looking at better striking options than Rooney, but he could play off the striker for them too and even in the "wide" positions for them. They might change the way they throw money at their playing staff due to FFP, but in the past they haven't minded paying huge wages... So they have to ask themselves 2 questions: Will spending a lorryload of money on Rooney prevent them from signing a better player for possibly less money? The second question is simply whether trading 35 million or so for Rooney would be strengthening or weaking United. Of course simply subtracting Rooney from United weakens them, but if City take Rooney but fund the majority of Falcao's transfer for United, that's not really weakening United.
Chelsea - No. Simply doesn't fit. If they get some very strange manager then there might be a chance but Chelsea transfers in recent years haven't really worked like that anyway. Chelsea have an insane amount of number 10s, if they use Rooney as a number 9 and possibly wide sometimes. After Shevchenko and Torres, I think they're more likely to sign Falcao than Rooney if they do want to sign a big player. If they get their fingers burned constantly when it comes to strikers they're going to suffer when it comes to FFP. They can't just afford a swing and a miss all the time... But most importantly, Liverpool managed to blow most of their Torres money on Andy Carroll. I don't think Chelsea can risk strengthening United by paying too much for Rooney.
So what does that leave? Monaco? Russia?
I'd rather sign Tevez than Rooney, half the transfer fee, half the wages... I think most of the top clubs would rather do that too. Tevez did say that he would return to South America at the end of his career though, so City might end up letting him go for free in the end.
Anyway, my point was, if United say "ok, go" and Rooney gets no offers, they win because his contract won't be as high as last time and he can't pull this brick every time he wants to talk about his contract.... If they do get a good offer, they win too.
