Gary Neville: Manchester United would be 'mad' to sell Wayne Rooney

Wayne Rooney and Jermain Defoe at England training with manager Roy Hodgson on Monday. (Getty Images)

England coach and ex-Old Trafford fan favourite Gary Neville believes that Manchester United would be ‘mad’ to sell Wayne Rooney.

The striker, who requested to leave at the end of last season, sat out of Sunday’s Community Shield with a shoulder injury but took part in England training the next day. Chelsea have already had two bids rejected by the Red Devils as his future looks no closer to being resolved.

Neville, who played with Rooney for seven years at United, doesn’t think that the club can afford to let him leave, going as far as to call Rooney the “most important player in the Premier League” over the last eight years.

“Manchester United, at this moment in time, would be mad to sell him,” Neville told The Daily Mail. “Along with Robin Van Persie, he has been the most successful player in terms of goals and assists in the last five years of the Premier League.

“Even last year, which you could argue was a year he was below his best, but he was playing in midfield, playing right side, left side, he still had 22 goals and assists. He is a massive contributor to games and you can’t replace personalities. There are very few personalities in football now, big personalities, fighters, he is one of them.

“You can’t just buy them, you might argue you could replace them in respect of the numbers he creates but in terms of personality, what he brings, very difficult to replace him.

“I could argue in the last eight years, he has been the most important player in the Premier League. Why would I be over the top by stating that? He is one of the most successful players in the last eight years, won the most championships in that period, been an ever present, played in every single game nearly every season.

“Scoring 20 plus goals in most of them, assisting, fighting for every single ball in every single game. The evidence is there – they don’t grow on trees Wayne Rooneys.”

Although Chelsea claim they will continue to pursue Rooney it doesn’t look as if United are going to cave in and sell the former Everton striker and Neville believes that if he stays he can rediscover a healthy relationship with the club:

“He went through a situation two or three years ago if you remember,” Neville said. “It was quite a public situation but he still continued to want to play football. We are all big enough to understand that players want to leave football clubs, I think there is a way to leave a football club.

“If Manchester United decide not to sell him I think that he will go about his business in absolutely the way he has done previously. He’s a street footballer, he’s someone who, even now, speaking to people last week, he is training hard, he wants to play, wants to do well, keeps his professionalism about him.

“I don’t see how Manchester United can sell him at this moment in time. I really don’t because they won’t be able to replace him.”