Wayne Rooney

On January 7 we published a story, headlined on the print edition's front page, suggesting Wayne Rooney could be sold in the January transfer window because of a damaged working relationship between him and Sir Alex Ferguson ("Ferguson willing to sell Rooney during transfer window", by James Lawton).  We said there was a strong feeling around Manchester United that Sir Alex believed he had "lost control of Rooney".  We now accept that the working relationship between player and manager is strong and are happy to reiterate the statement, issued jointly by Rooney and Manchester United on the night of publication (and included in our story in later editions), that player and manager look forward to working together for seasons to come. We also accept that no moves were made to sell Wayne Rooney during the January transfer window.