Manchester United in shock as Wayne Rooney targets move to City

Wayne Rooney is increasingly open to the idea of completing the most rancorous and staggering transfer of modern times by leaving Manchester United for Manchester City.

He has informed United he has no intention of signing a new contract and is ready to contemplate following Carlos Tevez's path across Manchester and the potential minefield and recriminations of swapping one club for the other.

Carlos Ancelotti, the Chelsea manager, confirmed today that he would be interested in Rooney if he could establish any sense on the player's part that he would be willing to move to Stamford Bridge. But the reigning Footballer of the Year is leaning more towards City, acutely aware of the potential riches of joining the wealthiest club in England.

Although a perception has built that he wants to move to Spain, he has told team-mates that City, not Real Madrid or Barcelona, is the more realistic destination. Rooney has come to dislike aspects of life in England, specifically the media intrusion, and is open-minded about moving abroad, but there are other issues.

His wife, Colleen, is reluctant to be apart from her 12-year-old sister, Rosie, who suffers from the brain disorder Rett syndrome and whose condition worsened in the week after newspaper allegations appeared of Rooney having a relationship with a prostitute.

City, in turn, have decided they should do everything they can to take advantage of the player's breakdown in relations with Sir Alex Ferguson. Brian Marwood, City's football administrator, has a long‑standing relationship with Rooney's adviser, Paul Stretford, and close ties with the player, having previously worked in a senior position at Nike, one of Rooney's sponsors.

City are under pressure to reduce their wage bill to meet Uefa's financial fair-play requirements but they are relaxed about the issue and believe there are ways around it. If, for example, they were to lure Rooney away from Old Trafford on a salary of £250,000 a week they could recoup around two-thirds of that by selling, to name but two, Roque Santa Cruz and Craig Bellamy.

"We hadn't discussed signing Rooney until the last week because we never thought he would be available, just like we have never discussed signing Lionel Messi from Barcelona," one senior figure at Eastlands told the Guardian. "Now we know he wants to leave United we're obviously going to monitor it closely."

Rooney is on record in April saying that he had no interest in joining City and he knows that he would face the same allegations that have been directed towards Tevez, namely of treacherous disloyalty and greed.

United's supporters would also argue that moving to City is a step down but an alternative argument has been presented to Rooney comparing the huge wealth and ambition at Eastlands at a time when his current club are no longer in the market for established category-A players because of the financial issues that accompany their ownership under the Glazers. Rooney is said to share supporters' concerns that United will not have the financial muscle to compete at the highest level over the next few years.

David Gill, United's chief executive, has been caught out badly by Rooney's decision and was trying to get hold of the player's representatives today to ascertain whether there was anything that could be done to resolve the situation. For now, the message is firmly that Rooney's mind is made up – in part because of the monetary issues but mostly because of his grievances about the way he perceives Ferguson has treated him.

Gill and Ferguson appeared at a Unicef press conference at Old Trafford today but made it clear they would not talk about Rooney. Gill said: "We will say something at a more appropriate time, and this is not an appropriate time."

That may take the form of an official statement before Ferguson, under Uefa guidelines, holds a press conference tomorrow to preview the Champions League tie against Bursaspor on Wednesday. Rooney has 20 months left on his contract and the dilemma for United, if he cannot resolve his differences with Ferguson, is that his transfer valuation is depreciating. In other words, they would get a higher fee selling in January rather than the end of the season.

Real Madrid's president, Florentino Pérez, has been quietly talking up their interest during a series of off-the-record briefings over the past few weeks, but at a press conference today José Mourinho said: "I don't think he will leave. I think Ferguson will persuade him to stay."

As for Chelsea, Ancelotti said: "We'd have to wait to see if Wayne Rooney really wants to leave Manchester United. Secondly, whether United would really want to sell him. And thirdly, if Rooney's on the market it would not just be Chelsea interested, but a lot of teams."