Blackpool manager Ian Holloway has blasted the football authorities for allowing the Wayne Rooney situation to happen.
Holloway believes the Bosman ruling of 1995, which allows players over the age of 24 to move for free at the end of their contracts, unfairly penalises clubs.
Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson this week confirmed Rooney has told the club he will not sign a new contract, meaning he can walk away for nothing when his current deal expires in the summer of 2012.
"I've got big problems with the people who are running football," Holloway said. "I know the reasons I think the game is in trouble and you cannot have a Bosman ruling they've got at the moment.
"Manchester United have helped Wayne Rooney's career massively on and off the field. The manager, the club itself, has invested in him. They bought him for massive amounts of money as a young man and they're helping him blossom into the player that he is.
"He's one of the best centre-forwards in the world, and if he sees his contract out he's going to be able to walk out of there for nothing. That's the people at the very top of the game's fault.
"Our rules were brilliant. If he was offered the same amount of money again, they could hold his registration and someone would have to pay the fair amount of money for him.
"Just because you're 24, what on earth has that got to do with it? It's just ludicrous. They have the power to change this straight away. What if he sits there for 18 months, throws tantrums, doesn't try, doesn't play, and someone's already said to him, 'We'll take you and we'll pay you some of that money we should have paid Manchester United because you can walk out on a free'?
"Do you want to sign a person like that? Do you want to play for a club that says that to you? How do we know it hasn't already happened? The game is wrong. The people in charge of the game are wrong. They are so wrong this is frightening.
"If Alex Ferguson is being bullied by a player and his agent, how wrong is the game? When are you (FIFA and UEFA) going to listen to the people who are involved in the game?
"They say it's not fair on the player. Rubbish. The player has had his wages every week. They bought him, they worked with him, he belongs to them. It's so obvious. The world should change if it's wrong and football should look at itself.
"I'm looking at Alex Ferguson and thinking: 'What a magnificent manager. How can he handle this?' How he feels about Manchester United, how proud he is, yet Wayne Rooney or his agent can now manufacture a situation like this."
Former United midfielder Roy Keane, who himself left Old Trafford after falling out with Ferguson, believes any player should jump at the chance to play for the club.
"Players have opinions and if they want to leave then good luck to them," Keane said. "Man Utd will more than survive.
"If any player ever asked me, and one or two have, if they had a chance of signing for Man United, 'do it, you won't regret it'. I was there for 12 and a half years I loved every minute of every day playing for that club, every minute of every day.
"I had chances to leave, many opportunities when my contract situation was running out, particularly when I came back from my cruciate (ligament injury). An amazing football club, brilliant football club."
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Wow. I couldn't have said it better myself. I think Looney Rooney is finding out that he wasn't that popular to begin with. Was he thinking the fans would back him? Now other managers and players are backing Sir Alex (because they respect him) and Manchester United for being victims in this obvious extortion attempt. It's a double-edged sword. If United punish him by sitting him on the bench until the end of his contract, he will go for free somewhere else...but then he wouldn't be worth anything anyway because people would think he had lost his form. If they sell him now they would probably get a cut-rate price for him because others know they have to sell him.
I certainly hope that Fabio Capello punishes him for being a prat and leaves him out of the England squad. Quite honestly, he hasn't done anything for United or England recently so it wouldn't be a loss at all. Maybe Looney's manager has him thinking that he's the best player in the world.
All of this brings back the memory of Cristiano leaving. At the time it was hurtful because the fans loved Ronny and he did so much for us. Rooneys' low-class want-away makes Ronny look like a saint. At least he didn't hide the fact that he wanted to leave, and played his heart out until he did. I seriously wonder whether or not Rooney has been sandbagging and not scoring on purpose. He is a hothead with a personal life in tatters...what club is really going to want him?
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