Rooney wants to be Red for decade
(AP)
Updated: 2005-11-25 16:24

England striker Wayne Rooney helped lift some of the gloom at Manchester United by declaring himself ready to spend the next 10 years at Old Trafford.

Despite United needing to beat Benfica next month to guarantee a place in the knock-out stages of the Champions League and with Sir Alex Ferguson's side 10 points adrift of Premiership leaders Chelsea, Rooney said he is focused on achieving long-term success with the club.

He is so confident about United's future he would welcome the chance to stay with the club for the next decade.

"I don't see any reason why I won't be. It's a massive club with a massive fan base and we've got a lot of good young players in the squad now. Hopefully we're going to keep getting better," said Rooney who has a contract with United which runs until 2010.

Roy Keane's departure last Friday has left United without their former skipper but also a player whose MUTV interview, deemed unfit for broadcast by chief executive David Gill, was understood to take in particular criticism of five of the club's younger players.

The Irishman is believed to have targeted Alan Smith, Darren Fletcher, Kieran Richardson, Liam Miller and John O'Shea for particular scorn.

However, Rooney remains supportive of such players, and is optimistic this will be the season he collects the first major club medal of his career.

"I joined Manchester United to win trophies and win medals so hopefully I can start this season," said the 20-year-old Rooney.

United were impressive when winning 3-1 at Charlton on Saturday, a fortnight after ending Chelsea's unbeaten start to the Premiership season.

The back-to-back league wins over London opposition offer a sign of good things to come in Rooney's mind and his optimism hasn't been dimmed by a disappointing 0-0 draw with Villarreal in the Champions League on Tuesday.

"Hopefully we can kick on from that game now and keep winning games," he said.

"Hopefully Chelsea will drop a few points and we can get close to them or even catch them, and with a bit of luck we could end up overtaking them.

"If we win our game in hand it's a seven-point gap and there's still a lot of games left. So it's certainly not over."