Rooney delays deal after agent switch

Wayne Rooney's new agent said yesterday that Everton have "nothing to worry about" despite a delay in the striker signing his first professional contract.

Rooney's first chance to sign a four-year deal at Goodison Park would come on Thursday when he turns 17 but a change of management company by the teenager has delayed proceedings.

Paul Stretford's Pro-Active organisation are poised to take Rooney under their wing and the agent insists there is nothing sinister in the delay, which comes after the youngster scored a stunning winner against Arsenal on Saturday.

Rooney is now likely to put pen to paper on a deal in December. His agents met with the Everton vice-chairman Peter Kenwright yesterday.

"There's nothing mischievous in this, but Wayne has just changed agents and his new agency agreement doesn't go through for another few months. I don't think he will be actually signing until December, but the contract has been agreed, it was agreed several months ago," said Kenwright.

Stretford added: "I don't know when it will happen but it should be in the very near future, we would hope so. Certainly there is nothing for anyone to worry about – we just have the best interests of the boy at heart."

After his match-winning display, Rooney was hailed as England's brightest prospect by the Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger, with Liverpool's manager, Gerard Houllier, also tipping the 16-year-old to be a "big star". Houllier said: "Arsène repeated to me that he's the best young talent he's seen for a very long time. I don't think he was comparing him to Michael Owen when he said that Rooney was the best young English talent he had seen but, when there's a player of that quality at that age showing such talent and scoring a goal like that, then you must take notice of that talent.

"I've just seen a few glimpses of Rooney on TV and on both occasions he's changed the face of the game. He has the attributes to be a big star."

Wenger added yesterday: "There's no doubting he is a huge talent, the rest is down to his intelligence, motivation and health, because those are the things you need apart from ability to succeed at the highest level. You need to have something special to do what he is doing at the age of 16, and he certainly has all the ingredients to become a special player."

The Bayern Munich midfielder Owen Hargreaves has admitted he could be tempted into a move to England.

The Canadian-born England international has stalled on a two-year extension to his contract, which is set to run out in June 2004. But with reports in Germany linking him with moves to Liverpool and Arsenal, the 21-year-old is in no hurry to commit himself to the Bundesliga giants. "There's no need to rush anything," he said.

With Hargreaves an increasingly regular fixture in the England team under Sven-Goran Eriksson, the benefits of a move to his adopted homeland are obvious to the player who moved to Germany from Canada in 1997.

"I have a lot of fans over there and it is something unusual if you are an England international and you don't play there," said Hargreaves, who added he would prefer a move to one of England's big clubs. "If you play for Bayern Munich, you naturally want to switch to another big side," he said, while insisting that he is only interested in playing in the Bundesliga or the Premiership.

The Football Association has confirmed that the Birmingham City defender Olivier Tebily can play in Saturday's home game with Manchester City despite his sending-off against West Brom at the weekend.

Under new Fifa rules, he should be banned for the next game, but an FA spokesman reaffirmed that they will not change their disciplinary code mid-season. Tebily's ban will start 14 days after the offence, making him unavailable for the visit of Bolton on 2 November.