Losing a player as gifted as Wayne Rooney smacks of carelessness

The indication that Wayne Rooney will refuse to sign a new contract with Manchester United is the last thing Sir Alex Ferguson needed as he enters the final phase of almost a quarter of a century in charge at Old Trafford. It could even have a bearing on the timing of the manager's decision to bring his long reign to a close.

Ferguson has been here before, of course. David Beckham, Paul Ince, Jaap Stam and Ruud van Nistelrooy were world-class players who left the club at the manager's instigation, having incurred his displeasure. But Rooney, who is still only 24, was bought from Everton to become a keystone in Ferguson's last great side – the one that would not only continue his run of domestic success but give him a third European Cup victory, to be won in the style that eluded his otherwise successful teams in 1999 and 2008.

Rooney's decision will make observers – and perhaps even Ferguson himself – wonder whether such an ambition remains within the realms of possibility. As things stand, particularly in the long-term absence of Antonio Valencia and Owen Hargreaves, the team has barely enough quality to cope with a challenge for this season's Premier League title.

The manager has surely found himself relying on his old guard – Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and Gary Neville – for far longer than he ever envisaged when they first formed the locally produced core of his first-team squad a decade and a half ago. Given the constant need to introduce fresh blood of matching quality, to lose so gifted a young player as Rooney at this stage seems almost like carelessness.

It is generally agreed that no manager in Britain ought to be better fitted to deal with Rooney's difficult temperament than Ferguson. But that belief is based on past form, and in particular on one incident from almost 20 years ago, when the manager staged a late-night invasion of a private house in which his two young wingers, Giggs and Lee Sharpe, were partying.

Giggs, willing to listen and learn from a man 33 years his senior, turned into a model professional. But there are almost 45 years between Ferguson and Rooney, and perhaps it is too great a gap to be bridged even by the manager's accumulated wisdom and undoubted force of personality. As the product of Croxteth, and of a family with a boxing background, Rooney is less likely to be impressed by intimidation.

The gap between the two seemed to be exposed to the public gaze in the aftermath of another disappointing performance for England last Tuesday night, when Rooney told reporters that he had definitely not been suffering from the ankle injury of which Ferguson had spoken on several occasions in recent weeks. Asked why he thought Ferguson might have said such a thing, he replied: "I don't know." By choosing to go public with what was at best a difference of opinion, Rooney displayed a lack of respect for his manager that Ferguson may well have found intolerable.

Sooner or later one of them may let us know what has been said in their private conversations over the past few weeks. But the exchange on Wednesday is likely to have been particularly lively, given that Ferguson has gone to some trouble to shield Rooney from criticism of his recent performances. By dropping him to the bench on Saturday, rather than granting him the game-time Rooney claims is the surest cure for his malaise, the manager was publicly brandishing his authority in a way that can only have exacerbated the player's gathering disaffection.

How much would United get for Rooney were they to decide to cash in during the coming January transfer window, or even next summer, when he would still have a year left on his contract? On the basis of his form since returning from injury to play against Bayern Munich in the second leg of the Champions League semi-final last May, nothing like what they paid for him.

He finished the domestic season in poor shape and, to general mystification, gave only the haziest impersonation of himself all the way through the World Cup finals. He started the new season with United appearing slimmer and fitter but making little more in the way of influential contribution to the collective effort, and looking nothing at all like the player who compensated for the departure of Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid with an avalanche of goals.

Last Tuesday at Wembley there were several opportunities to reflect on the bizarre sluggishness that has infected his game. He was getting caught in possession while deliberating over straightforward passes and failing to convert scoring chances that the teenaged Rooney would have dispatched with lethal disdain.

"Look after Wayne Rooney," Sven-Goran Eriksson implored us while making his farewell speech as England's manager. Ferguson certainly did his best. But now perhaps he and Rooney need to get away from one another.

As what once seemed a perfect relationship appears to be heading for a final rupture, it is hard to work out which of them will suffer more.