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Rooney: I'm going nowhere

Manchester - Wayne Rooney poured fresh scorn on reports he might leave Manchester United after scoring twice in a 3-2 win away to Manchester City on Sunday that knocked the holders out of the FA Cup.

A report in Saturday's edition of The Independent suggested Alex Ferguson was ready to sell the club's talismanic striker after a breakdown in relations with Rooney.

But United and the England striker issued a statement denying the report on Saturday and Rooney, speaking after Sunday's match, told ITV: "Everything that has been in the press of late is a load of nonsense really.

"There is no problem for me at this club, I want to be at this club for a long time."

United manager Ferguson warned Rooney he was now as much a target for the headline writers as former England midfielder Paul Gascoigne had been.

"There's absolutely no problem with Wayne," Ferguson insisted. "What Wayne has got to realise is the press have got another Gascoigne and he's got to suffer with that."

Fresh speculation about strains in Ferguson and Rooney's relationship began during the Christmas holiday programme, when it emerged the player had been dropped from last week's defeat against Blackburn.

Rooney was fined a week's wages after going out for dinner with his wife and fellow players Jonny Evans and Darron Gibson on December 26.

A lacklustre Rooney was also substituted by Ferguson during Wednesday's 3-0 defeat against Newcastle at St James Park

But at Eastlands on Sunday he looked back near his best, powering in a header and then, after Danny Welbeck had doubled United's lead, following up from a penalty to make it 3-0 before the break against a City side reduced to 10-men after the early sending off of captain Vincent Kompany. 
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