Now, we have the answer, and it's a tough pill to swallow for United fans. Rooney wants out of Old Trafford because he doesn't believe that the ownership is committed to spending and winning, and the signs point to him being absolutely right.
For Manchester United's players, coaches and fans, this is absolutely unacceptable, and should be the final definitive proof of what many have said for years: The Glazers have to go.
The trend has been pretty obvious for years. The team has let superstars go, but refused to replace them. When the club took in massive revenue after winning the Champions League in 2008, they transfered away Cristiano Ronaldo, and let Carlos Tevez go as well. The replacement for those stars was the one and only Dimitar Berbatov, who has acquitted himself somewhat in 2010, but may have well not been on the squad for the two previous years.
The history of what United has done, though, does not need to be recounted in detail. What they have failed to do is much more troubling. Both Franck Ribery and Karim Benzema were hypothetically available after Tevez and Ronadlo were let go, but the team stood pat. Both David Silva and David Villa, players perhaps even better suited to replace those stars at Old Trafford, wanted to move to England in 2010. Silva ended up in Eastlands, and Villa in Barcelona. Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Samuel Eto'o and Mesut Ozil have been on the move as well, and would have been logical fits for United. None are at Old Trafford.
Sir Alex has been forced to take the fall for many of these decisions, repeatedly saying, "we don't need to add players right now," but everybody knows that United does. Javier Hernandez may have been an absolute steal for the price paid for him, but he's not one of the world's best players. The old United would nearly exclusively field a team of the world's best players.
Instead, United relies on ancients like Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes, and the grit of players like Darren Fletcher and Park Ji-Sung. Ferguson has done wonders given the circumstances, but the plan is simply unsustainable.
Fan outrage and protests have already made their mark at Old Trafford, as have bids on the club by the Red Knights fan consortium. Rooney's words, perhaps intentionally, should kick such into a higher gear.
Liverpool fans cried out for new ownership until they finally got their way via NESV. Manchester United, at its multi-billion dollar value, is a tougher task to find suitors for, but if the Red Knights can raise a billion dollars, then there simply must be supporters able to step forward to give the Glazers an offer they can't refuse.
If supporters were already in the midst of a cold war with the Glazers, it is now time for that war to become scalding hot — even boycott level. Though as we've seen with Liverpool, running bad owners out of town is an ugly, long process, it's one that ultimately does work.
United has a chance to become something even more special if it can be the first fan-owned superclub. It could rewrite the rules of the football industry, even the sports industry. Not only that, but it would be able to keep its brightest star, and preserve the legacy of the sport's greatest manager.
Though Wayne Rooney may have made the situation a grim and ugly one, his call to action may be exactly what United needs to fix itself. Whether or not that can occur before Chelsea makes a bid that the Glazers can't refuse in January, or Rooney walks away after the season, remains to be seen.
How should United supporters react to Rooney and the Glazers? Share your thoughts below.
