Where next for the Wayne Rooney roadshow?

And so now we have confirmation; Wayne Rooney officially wants to leave Manchester United.

After days of speculation, Sir Alex Ferguson today announced to the football world that Rooney had admitted he would not be signing another contract at United, and had expressed his desire to leave the club. It’s an amazing twist to a story that’s far from its conclusion. For the question now on everyone’s lips is: just where will Rooney go?

Not many players leave United at the peak of their powers, so exits out of Old Trafford are usually the beginning of a downward spiral into mediocrity - often via Newcastle. Those leaving the club when still thought to be at the top of their game usually do so with a verbal volley from Ferguson still ringing in their ears, and the tip of his boot recently planted on their backside: Sir Alex decides when it’s time for a player to move, and no-one else.

But Ronaldo’s relentless pursuit of a move to Real Madrid has perhaps changed all that. He became the first player to depart from Old Trafford on his terms, and whilst still considered one of the best players on the planet. To replace him, United signed Antonio Valencia; who despite looking increasingly at home on the right side of United’s midfield before his injury, does not possess the outrageous match-winning talent of Ronaldo.

Some reports suggest that United’s relative inactivity in the transfer market - particularly their reluctance to replace Ronaldo with a marquee player of the likes of Mesut Ozil or David Villa - is perceived by Rooney as a lack of ambition on the club’s part, and is a major factor in his decision to want out of Old Trafford. Yet a club that starts every season with a genuine aim of winning its own domestic league, the Champions League and anything else in between can hardly be described as unambitious.

Until we hear directly from the man himself, we won’t know the reasons behind Rooney’s eagerness to leave the country’s biggest club. Some will say that at least it explains his woeful form over a period that now dates back to the end of last season, through the World Cup and now to the start of the new Premier League season.

Hopefully this explanation will help to prevent the now weekly inquest carried out by the press as to why Rooney hasn’t performed to the standard we all expect of him. Everybody, and everything else in the world seems to be responsible for Wayne Rooney’s God-awful form other than Wayne Rooney.

Take this weekend for example; where Sir Alex Ferguson was heavily criticised for only playing him in the last 20 minutes of their 2-2 draw with West Bromwich Albion. How could United hope to win the league with their star striker so regularly warming the bench? How could Rooney find his touch again without a run of consecutive games? These were the kind of questions being asked by the press on Sunday morning, yet Ferguson’s responsibility lies solely at delivering the best possible results for Manchester United. With the way Rooney has been playing recently, he was lucky to be on the bench in the first place on Saturday, let alone get off it for more than 20 minutes.

Yet it wasn’t too long ago that we were hailing Rooney has the saviour of English football; the man who plundered goals at home and abroad throughout last season, and would lead England to certain World Cup glory in South Africa; a rare English star talented enough to rival our continental cousins not only for pace and passion, but skill and technique too. He remains a fantastically talented footballer, who can win games almost on his own. And it’s because of this, that there will be no shortage of clubs queuing up to secure his signature at the next transfer window.

Barcelona and Real Madrid will naturally lead the way from abroad, whilst Chelsea and Manchester City will be the front-runners at home. In truth, only those four clubs in the whole of Europe could afford to buy Rooney, and even two of those - Barcelona and Chelsea - have been forced to be far more watchful of their expenditure than they have been in recent years, and may not stretch to either United’s asking price, or Rooney’s wage demands.

A move to Real Madrid would mean a reunion with his old sparring partner Ronaldo, whilst also offering him the chance to work with Jose Mourinho. That said, Real already have Ronaldo, Higuain, Benzema, Kaka and Ozil to play in advanced positions, and it remains to be seen whether they would pay the reported £50m fee for someone to provide competition to that impressive forward line. That said, logic is something that’s rarely been applied to Real’s spending in the past. Whether Rooney would be willing to adapt to life in the Spanish capital is perhaps a more pressing question to consider. You get the impression he would struggle to adapt to life outside of the North West of England, so a move to another country may not actually be to his liking.

So does that leave Manchester City as his most likely destination? It seems almost unthinkable for Wayne Rooney to be a Manchester City player within the next 12 months. But with almost unlimited funds to spend and offering Rooney an option that would see him depart United but not the North West, is it completely out of the question that Rooney would follow the cash and head to Eastlands? Only time will tell, but wherever Wayne Rooney ends up, it’s likely to be considered the most talked about transfer in English football for a generation.