Rooney opens contract talks with Red Devils

Wayne Rooney has opened talks aimed at cementing his long-term future with Manchester United.

The 20-year-old has previously stated his intention to remain at Old Trafford but confirmation that negotiations with the Red Devils have begun will ease any tension among United's supporters about Rooney's short-term intentions.

Although the deal Rooney signed when he completed his £27million switch from Everton in 2004 is not due to expire for another four years, both club and player are eager to extend it.

It has been suggested agreement could be reached by the end of the year, with any new deal certain to catapult Rooney into United's high-earning bracket despite a series of below-par displays in recent times.

The England star, who suffered intense personal abuse in the aftermath of the midweek defeat in Croatia, showed clear signs of a return to form in the second half of yesterday's win over Wigan, which maintained United's position at the Premiership summit.

Although Rooney failed to break a scoring drought which now extends to nine games for club and country since the opening day of the domestic campaign, he played a major part in his side's comeback triumph, providing key assists for Louis Saha and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

His performance earned huge praise, not just from his own manager Alex Ferguson, but also Wigan chief Paul Jewell, who branded recent criticism of the player as 'nonsense'.

Yesterday's performance, once Rooney had been moved away from the left flank following the half-time introduction of Ryan Giggs, certainly suggested Jewell's assertion is correct.

And Ferguson has seen no indication of the striker being overly concerned by his current barren streak.

'He doesn't seem to be the type of individual who would get himself hot and bothered about what has gone on,' said the United boss.

'He has always been quite an open lad, cocky and confident.

'I don't think he sits and worries about things like that. He does not play that way.'

Ferguson has maintained all along Rooney's form will return once he gets a decent number of matches under his belt.

However, surprisingly given the stern warnings Ferguson offered prior to Rooney's participation in the World Cup, he does not feel the forward's presence in Germany, just weeks after sustaining a broken foot at Chelsea in April, has necessarily been a major contributing factor behind recent relatively poor displays.

'I don't think going to the World Cup did Wayne any good considering the physical condition he was in but I am not 100% sure that it is anything to do with what we are seeing at the moment,' said the Scot.

'He got his rest afterwards like everyone else but then he just went straight back into football training without doing any endurance work, which is something we will address next summer.'

Rooney is certain to face FC Copenhagen in the Champions League on Tuesday. Amazingly, he has not scored in the tournament since his famous debut-day hat-trick against Fenerbahce in September 2004, a statistic which Ferguson finds difficult to comprehend.

'I am surprised he has not scored in the Champions League for two years,' he said.

'We had a bad campaign last year, so you have to put that aside I suppose but nonetheless, I am surprised.'