Manchester United claim no fear of letting Wayne Rooney's contract to run down

As much as Manchester United probably want the Wayne Rooney questions to stop, it's just not going to happen. The club have moved on in their pre-season tour to Sydney, Australia and from there, new chief executive Ed Woodward had this to say about the striker:

"There are no contract renewals that are being discussed. I am not sitting down with any player on an extension and there is no trigger date in the diary. Would we be afraid to run a contract down? Of course not."

- Woodward | Source: Guardian

New United manager David Moyes also had this to say about Rooney recently:

"Wayne has got a major role to play, we need to get him as many goals as we can. Wayne can play up on his own, he can play dropped in. Overall my thought on Wayne is, if for any reason we had an injury to Robin van Persie, we'll need him. It's going to be a time to see how I work with Wayne. Maybe in a year's time we might have to look at something else. The first year, I have to get a chance to see the players and how best to use them.But I've also got to make sure we don't just concentrate on him. Manchester United aren't about Wayne Rooney. Manchester United are about the team, the club. We are talking about him now, and rightly so, but what I won't allow is Wayne to become more important than the club and the team."

- Moyes

I suppose there are a few ways to think about these quotes. One is that the club is continuing the company line that Rooney won't be sold this summer. He still might be, but if he is, it's looking increasingly likely that business would be done at the end of the summer transfer window. Another way of looking at this is that Moyes is encouragingly letting Rooney know who is boss and that the player is not important enough anymore to hold leverage over the club. The manager has let the Englishman know that RvP is the vital cog in the squad now and not him. Rooney and his representatives know that this moment -- with two years remaining on his current contract -- is typically a decision-making point for a club over an important player. United saying that they're fine with being patient and seeing how things might go for this upcoming season without a contract renewal shows an intent to gain leverage over the player. It may not be financially responsible, and it may be a gamble, but it can be argued that this is a prudent stance to take by the club.