Rooney not for sale 'at any price'
Specific questions as to how the Glazer family intend to pay off the £500 million (€739.7m) debt taken on to complete their purchase of the club remain unanswered, but chief executive David Gill is confident enough in the business plan to confirm no amount of money could prise Rooney away from Old Trafford.
"There is definitely no amount of money that would buy Wayne Rooney," he said.
"The Glazers understand sport. Success on the pitch drives everything. If we do not have a successful team on the pitch, what we want to do commercially will not work.
"We fought long and hard to get Wayne from Everton last summer. We were delighted with the purchase and we know he can only get better.
"Very few top-class footballers leave Manchester United and I do not think the Glazers would be tempted to get an instant return on their money if someone made a huge bid for him."
With the loose ends of his £790 million (€1.17bn) Red Devils takeover now complete, Glazer sent sons Joel, Avi and Bryan on a largely successful charm offensive this week, taking in the Premier League, Football Association, Sports Minister Richard Caborn, Gill and his staff, plus a flying visit to meet manager Sir Alex Ferguson and the United squad at their Portuguese training camp.
Following the captures of Edwin van der Sar and Park Ji-Sung, Gill also admitted Ferguson was on the lookout for one more signing, without giving anything away as to who it might be.
The debrief between Gill, Sir Alex Ferguson and assistant manager Carlos Queiroz over a second successive season of relative failure in the Premiership and Champions League apparently highlighted three areas of concern, two of which have now been addressed.
"The discussions with Alex and Carlos as to where the team needs strengthening took place before the takeover," said Gill.
"By and large, the team is in good shape but we have already completed two key acquisitions and there is one other place we are looking at, for which money will be made available as the Glazers have made clear."
Unless Ferguson opts to offload one of his strikers - which could open the door to a move for Michael Owen - logic suggests he is attempting to strengthen further in midfield, with Lyon's Michael Essien again being linked with a transfer to Old Trafford despite long-term interest from Chelsea.
Gill was not prepared to say which area Ferguson was looking at. Neither, after being stung so badly earlier this year after stating everyone at United was "sackable", was he willing to make any comment on the manager's future as he moves on to a one-year rolling contract.
Gill also defended Rio Ferdinand against allegations of disloyalty for his failure to sign his new Red Devils contract.
The £100,000-a-week (€148,070) extension to Ferdinand's contract remains unsigned even though Alex Ferguson called on the England defender to commit his future to Old Trafford prior to the FA Cup final defeat to Arsenal in May.
However Gill, who confirmed that all the financial details of Cristiano Ronaldo's contract extension have been agreed, believes Ferdinand, who has two years of his current deal still to run, is perfectly within his rights to wait and is confident the saga will eventually reach a satisfactory conclusion.
"There is no stumbling block," Gill said. "We want him to stay, he wants to stay and in my experience, when that situation prevails, invariably the player stays."
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