SO there we have it, Sir Alex Ferguson says Wayne Rooney doesn’t want to sign a new Manchester United contract - now sit back and await the outpourings of grief from heartbroken fans.

Get over it. Footballers leave clubs; that’s the nature of the game.

Rooney left Everton, the club that gave him his break, now it seems he is set to leave the self-titled Theatre of Dreams.

Mystery may surround the actual ins and outs and whys and hows - but the fact is Rooney owes United nothing and United owe the player just as much, given the hefty wages he has been paid.

There is no loyalty in football, rarely has been. Football is a business - and has been big business ever since 1992.

One person who was around prior to the Premier League is another man with a Manchester United connection, Gordon Strachan.

Strachan quit yesterday as boss of Middlesbrough - and gave away any chance of getting a pay-off at the same time.

Strachan can be a prickly character but keeps his friends and allies close in the old fashioned way.

So what if the other week he made a radio interviewer feel a little silly when he rounded on him for trying to pick his tactics. Strachan’s job is to manage, the interviewer’s is to interview - I guess the interviewer had never played the game to the level of Strachan so maybe the Scotsman was right to feel indignant.

Whatever the rights and wrongs of that exchange, which is still getting air time on one national station, Strachan stands head and shoulders above so many modern players.