More goals to come next season, warns Wayne

WAYNE ROONEY has warned the rest of the Premiership that he plans to improve on this season’s impressive goal haul next term.

The £27m teenager’s striker in the 4-0 win at Charlton on Sunday was his 17th since his move to Manchester United from Everton in August.

The tally is almost double Rooney’s previous best of nine and with three Premiership games and the FA Cup final against Arsenal still to play, there could be more to come.

However, Rooney is not entirely satisfied. And while the brilliant 19-year-old has never been thought of as a prolific sharp-shooter in the Ruud van Nistelrooy mould, he is confident of hitting the target on an even more regular basis in future years.

“I was happy to get another goal on Sunday but I think I can do better and hopefully next season I will do,” the United striker said.

With Alex Ferguson insisting van Nistelrooy’s current ankle problem is nothing major and injury-plagued Louis Saha beginning his latest return with a goalscoring appearance in Monday’s Pontins League Cup final win over Sheffield Wednesday, United look set to have their full compliment of strikers available for the May 21 showdown with Arsene Wenger’s men.

Rooney is a certainty to start though and after being part of a side that lost at Norwich and Everton last month, the Liverpudlian is demanding victories over West Brom, Chelsea and Southampton in the final week of the Premiership campaign to ensure United are fully prepared for the Cardiff trip.

“We want to win all our games going into the final,” he said.

“April was a bad month for us but we have got back to winning ways and we need to keep it going. The Cup final is going to be massive for everyone. We will all be trying to keep fit so we can fight for our place.”

Meanwhile, Rio Ferdinand has reiterated his desire to sign a new United contract and urged the club’s supporters to be patient.

The defender was jeered by a section of United supporters during his side’s 4-0 win at Charlton. But Ferdinand, linked with a move to Chelsea after being pictured with the Stamford Bridge club’s chief executive Peter Kenyon, claims fans are wrong to think he will quit Old Trafford.

“I fully understand where the fans are coming from. If I was one of them I’d wonder when the deal was going to be signed as well.

“I won’t pretend it was a comfortable feeling to have your own supporters getting on your back. But they need to know I want to stay.

They couldn’t be further away from the truth if they think I want to go.

“Contracts do not get signed in five minutes. I want the contract sorted. If I could have signed it yesterday I would have.”