Everton bid for Rooney looking likely

It’s looking like Everton will be making an attempt to bring Wayne Rooney back to the club this summer after all. Sky Sports are spending the day at USM Finch Farm today ahead of the game at Tottenham Hotspur this weekend, and both manager Ronald Koeman and Director of Football Steve Walsh praised the former Evertonian, saying that adding him would bolster the club.

The player has been linked multiple times with a return to Goodison Park, and Koeman spoke about Rooney’s decision to not leave for a big payday in China.

"I still think Wayne Rooney is playing at a high level and he made a good choice staying at Manchester United and in the Premier League.

"He still has two or three years in front of him to play at the highest level. What will happen at the end of the season, I do not know? In my opinion he's one of the players who can make Everton stronger than they are now.

"It's all about what the players likes, what Manchester United need to do and we are not involved in that project. Every player who we feel can make the team stronger is welcome at Everton."

Walsh then went on to reinforce Koeman’s message about Rooney, calling him one of England’s best.

“Rooney is one of the greatest players ever to play in England. For us not to be interested in him it would be wrong. If the opportunity arose for him to come back, and it sat right with everybody, then its something we’d look at.

“He’s a class apart. All the things said about him are true and I think he’s one of England’s greatest ever players, so why would he not be of interest to us?”

There’s no doubt that Rooney’s mantle at Manchester United has now passed on to Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and with him having already captured the top scorer title for the Reds in football history, he has nothing left to prove.

There is the small matter of the 2018 World Cup that he would dearly love to play in, but playing in China or in the MLS will jeopardize his chances of making the English team despite their paucity of reliable striking options. With the lifelong Evertonian having said that he would only ever play for United and Everton in England, what remains is a matter of the two clubs and the player coming to an agreement at the end of the season.