JOSE MOURINHO says he will never sell Wayne Rooney after the Manchester United captain was linked with a mega-money move to the Chinese Super League.
Shanghai SIPG boss Sven Goran-Eriksson will try and tempt Rooney, 30, with a whopping £80million deal to quit Old Trafford and finish off his career in the Far East.
But Old Trafford chief Mourinho, 53, when asked if he would ever offload his skipper, said: “No, never.
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“I will never make that decision. A player of his stature, a player of his history in the club will never go to point where club or manager want to make that decision for him.
“I put him [Rooney] on the bench for three matches in a row. That is hard for him, hard for me, so that is being ruthless, to put in my mind the interests of the team in front of the player, prestige, status. In this case even legend. To put on bench a player with the numbers he has for club and country is hard.
“But as we were saying before, this is an industry where the people who leads, sometimes in a correct decision, sometimes not correct decisions, but in our mind the decisions we think is the best for the team.”
Shanghai's owners have been monitoring Rooney's situation, reports the Sunday Mirror.
He was reportedly offered a £500,000-a-week deal - plus commercial bonuses - ten months ago.
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But after discussions he decided he wanted to continue his career at United.
Now, after being dropped from the first team by Mourinho, he could be more easily swayed to throw in the towel on his 12-year Old Trafford career.
His position in the England team is also under threat, with the Three Lions captain only coming on as a 73rd-minute sub against Slovenia in this month's World Cup qualifier.
However, Mourinho has dismissed claims Rooney's career is in decline and says the England striker will return to form.
The Portuguese told Sky Sports: "I think he's paying for his success. He had so many successes in his career. He brought his expectation levels to such a level that people probably think he has to perform in every match, every week, every month, every season at the same level. For me, that's a problem.
"I think in this country it happens to everyone, it is just your nature, you build people, you kill people, you build again and you destroy again! And I think it is just the nature of the business, especially in football."
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