The Sunday Supplement panel have argued that Manchester United may be well advised to sell Wayne Rooney this month if a big offer from China comes in.
The 31-year-old has played a bit-part role for Jose Mourinho in recent months, making 28 appearances in all competitions with many off the bench as he has contributed just five goals and nine assists in his time on the pitch.
Having now also surpassed Sir Bobby Charlton as the club’s all-time record goalscorer, it appears as though his time at Old Trafford is coming to a natural end.
In turn, speculation of a move to China, with their transfer deadline not until the end of February, has become a prominent issue again with the panel suggesting that perhaps the best decision from the club’s perspective would be to sell now.
“They will not get a bigger offer than what they will get from China so obviously they’d be pleased for him to go now,” Jason Burt of the Telegraph noted on the Sunday Supplement.
“If that’s the biggest offer, they are going to realise in the next year they are going to want to take it.
“Ideally they will want to see through the season but if this offer is so big that they think it’s going to be the best offer, they’ll be quite happy for him to go.”
Burt did raise the question as to whether Rooney would want to go to China though, and that could well be a sticking point in a possible move before the summer if he prefers other destinations and if he accepts that his time at United is coming to an end.
In contrast, The Sunday People’s Steve Bates doesn’t believe that United will usher him out before the end of the month, although accepts that the speculation won’t go away until the Chinese transfer window shuts.
He argued that despite he fact that he’s not involved as a starter, he’s still highly-regarded and is a club hero so United won’t be in a rush to push him out as such even if they do harbour hopes of eventually moving him on.