Feint

In an earlier post about Wayne Rooney, it's clear I fell for agent Paul Stretford's bluff.  Now young Wayne has told fellow pleasure-seekers in Dubai "I was never going to leave United", according to the Sun.

There are hints that someone in the Rooney camp may have shared that information with punters in Liverpool rather than Manchester.  On the morning of the announcement of a new deal between player and club, there were sightings of the la's in jeans at a range of bookies across the city. Graham Sharpe, spokesman for William Hill said  "We started the morning offering 7/4 that Rooney would stay beyond January but that price was forced down to 4/9 after we took a stream of three-figure bets in our Liverpool shops - one punter even tried to get a bet of £5,000 on. With no money whatsoever for him to leave Old Trafford in January we decided to close the book to prevent us building up a massive liability on Rooney staying."

Rooney has "previous" with bookmakers, after allegedly running up debts of £700k in 2006 with one company, an issue resolved by the indefatigable Mr Stretford.