Two full years without the title and Wayne Rooney has had enough.
The Manchester United captain full expects his side to be returning to the upper echelons of the Premier League in the 2015/16 season and he isn’t holding back with their ambitions.
The 29-year-old who has won five league titles at Old Trafford wrote on his official website that United will be challengers again next season after a two-year hiatus since Alex Ferguson left them.
“I honestly believe we will go far next year and won’t be far off challenging for the league,” Rooney said. “If you look at the first 10 to 11 games we only had around 13 points, and if you look at where we finished I think it shows we could have been up there with a better start.
“We’ve dominated and outplayed most teams this season but haven’t taken our chances to win those games, it could have been a different story if we had. The most important thing is that as a squad, including the manager and myself, we believe we are close to challenging for the title and with a couple of signings in the summer we will have a good chance of doing that.
“It would be good to win as many cups as possible, a club like Manchester United should be winning trophies and hopefully next season we can put that right.”
Rooney turns 30 in October and, whilst he’s looking for silverware with both United and England (yes, England), he also wants to write his own name into history.
“My personal goals are to perform for my club and country to the best of my ability, and to make sure I’m the best captain I can be. I’ve always set my standards as high as possible and that hasn’t changed. I want to help both Manchester United and England win trophies and next year I will have the chance to do that.
“I still have personal targets of becoming the all time leading goal scorer for both England and Manchester United, that’s something that is still in my mind but the main priority will be to help both my club and country perform the best they possibly can.”
And what about big Mr Van Gaal?
“I’ve really enjoyed working with the manager and have learned a lot from him, his will to win and his attention to detail are second to none. In terms of training sessions, every session means something, even if it’s a little game, he wants the team who he is working with to win and he’s not happy if they don’t.
“His knowledge of the game is incredible, prior to games or post game analysis, he picks up on everything and nothing goes unnoticed. He’s also great to work with, in training and match days he’s very serious but he’s also very approachable if the players need to talk to him, he’s genuinely a nice guy.”
