Sir Alex Ferguson may be renowned for telling fibs to the media, but recently he has become more open in the eyes of fans – speaking about Wayne Rooney in a way he has never done so before. It’s not that he’s getting careless, he’s just displaying an ultimate respect for the club’s supporters…

  Report By: Thomas Rooney, 12:40pm

It looked as though it was going to be a dark period for all involved with Manchester United in the past few weeks, particularly those fans who have already felt the continued rise of noisy neighbours Manchester City, and the lack of loyalty shown by striker Wayne Rooney appeared to outsiders as though it would be the final nail in a painful coffin for Red Devils.

However, with Sir Alex Ferguson showing the club’s fans an enormous amount of respect by telling them the truth regarding Rooney’s future instead of leaving the issue to be muddied further by constant back page speculation – United have shown once again that no one player is bigger than the club. Rooney may be staying, but the club were already formatting plans to move along without him, and we can still expect a few transfer rumours to fly around in the coming days, weeks and months about his future.

With players such as David Beckham and Roy Keane regretting their departures from the club later in their careers, it is likely that it would have been Rooney, not Manchester United, who eventually came to rue the fact that a player once seemingly devoted for life to the club had departed.

In fact, United would have been just fine had Rooney left… Javier ‘Chicharito’ Hernandez is already outselling the no. 10 in terms of shirt sales, and he’s doing a hell of a lot better on the field aswell. The little Mexican gem will only get better for the next 10 years or so, and may one day even outshine Rooney.

Sir Alex again displayed respect for the fans on Friday morning, as he revealed Rooney will be injured for up to four weeks – and not just being let off on holiday putting on a few pounds. The fans respect has been restored by Ferguson at Old Trafford, while Rooney’s lack of just that will result in a struggle to regain support of the United faithful.

Meanwhile, the Tottenham Hotspur betting tips suggest United are in with an excellent chance of claiming yet another win at Old Trafford. The team will need to start collecting points fast if they are to stay in the title hunt.