Rooney new deal - Manchester United

Over 15 million per year, for five years for Rooney's services, they are having a laugh. The record sum that Manchester United are reported to have agreed with Wayne Rooney is madness. Not only is he not worth it, it is going to be the ruin of Man Utd. The club missed the boat in January when they could have sold him to Chelsea and made good money and reduce their players costs in one move. In addition the profits from the sale could have allowed some good new blood to be added to the squad and resolve some of David Moyes's problems.

The record sum dwarfs bankers bonus, and I would wager that Rooney has no performance criteria included in his contract. Even if he does not play he will be still paid, I suspect that only if he commits gross misconduct will he be penalised with a fine, a mere fraction of his salary ( it will probably be tax deductible). I would not mind to much but I am also sure that tax specialist will have worked some way in which Rooney will never pay anywhere never the 50 percent tax rate he should.

This all points to the fact we should do something now to control player costs to stop clubs making these fatal errors of judgement. I know there some small controls in place to minimise wrong doing within football club finances, but I think it should go much further and set caps on salaries. Many will think this will restrict the business side of football, but I believe the money can be better spent on the development of the youth programmes and bringing through new home grown players. Let's face it we don't have many Rooneys in the country.