Moyes stakes reputation on getting value from Rooney

David Moyes has staked his job on Everton sticking to their intention to sell Wayne Rooney for £30m. The Everton manager has told friends that he would consider resigning if the club accepted Newcastle's bid of £20m for the striker, an offer that has already been rejected and which many observers see as a stunt by the Newcastle chairman, Freddy Shepherd.

David Moyes has staked his job on Everton sticking to their intention to sell Wayne Rooney for £30m. The Everton manager has told friends that he would consider resigning if the club accepted Newcastle's bid of £20m for the striker, an offer that has already been rejected and which many observers see as a stunt by the Newcastle chairman, Freddy Shepherd.

Newcastle yesterday insisted that the offer would not be increased but denied it was co-ordinated by Shepherd's son, Kenny - who works for Rooney's agent, Paul Stretford - as a way of forcing Manchester United's hand.

United are seen as the likeliest club to take Rooney on but their preferred stategy is to wait until the January transfer window when Everton will be forced to consider offers below £30m as Rooney's contract would then have less than a season and a half to run.

The Newcastle manager, Sir Bobby Robson, insisted the bid was genuine, although it defies belief he would want a fifth specialist centre-forward.

He added that the impetus for the bid had come from Shepherd and his most pressing concern is a replacement for Jonathan Woodgate, with Manchester United's Republic of Ireland international John O'Shea considered Robson's most likely target.

Although he has talked to Rooney about his future at Goodison and accepts he will seek to leave Everton, Moyes is determined there should be no further departures until then.

When pressed about the possible sale of midfielder Thomas Gravesen to Hamburg, he said: "We have not got enough players to let any more go. He is probably one of the top midfielders in Europe, so why should I let him go?"

If Moyes expects any immediate cash injection from the proposed takeover of Everton by Anton Zingarevich, the son of a Russian millionaire, it will come later rather than sooner.

There has been no date set for a rescheduling of Monday night's board meeting - where Zingarevich's £20m offer was to be discussed - which was postponed when the Everton director Paul Gregg argued he had been given insufficient time to study the proposals.

Even if Zingarevich's bid were accepted immediately there is little question of any money being made available to Moyes before the transfer deadline on 31 August.