Manchester United play hardball with Wayne Rooney as Manchester City wait in wings

Rooney has left his Old Trafford future hanging by a thread after informing United's hierarchy last week that he would not commit himself to a new long-term contract.

But United are in no rush to restart contract talks with the England forward after being stunned by his wage demands. The former Everton player, whose current deal expires in June 2012, is understood to be angling for a pay hike to £200,000 a week.

Rooney's deteriorating relationship with manager Sir Alex Ferguson has done little to encourage either side to back down. And despite the menacing threat of City's mammoth wealth hanging over Old Trafford, United are refusing to cave in to Rooney's demands.

Although moving from United to City would result in Rooney being vilified by the red half of Manchester, sources within the United camp have been made aware of the player's readiness to contemplate such a move.

The possibility of Rooney, who celebrates his 25th birthday on Sunday, swapping red for blue is understood to be an open secret among his team-mates at United.

City remained coy on Monday night on the prospect of luring Rooney to Eastlands, but Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al Nahyan will not struggle to raise the funds for the transfer fee or wages.

Barcelona's financial problems would appear to compromise their hopes of signing Rooney, while Real Madrid director Jorge Valdano on Monday dismissed the likelihood of a move for the United striker.

There are reservations among some influential figures at City over a move for Rooney, based on the player's off-field troubles. However, the opportunity to prise United's marquee player from Old Trafford is likely to override any issues over Rooney's suitability to become part of the Eastlands project.

The threat of losing their star player to their closest rivals has yet to prompt Ferguson or United chief executive David Gill into a concerted effort to bring Rooney back on side. Ferguson is expected to reveal his own position on the player's future at a press conference at Old Trafford on Tuesday afternoon.

Senior figures at United spent Monday considering their position after waking to headlines reflecting Rooney's refusal to continue talks over a new contract.

Discussions between Ferguson and Gill and transatlantic phone calls between Gill and the Glazer family, the club's Florida-based owners, preceded and followed a lunchtime press conference held to publicise a £1 million charity initiative with Unicef at which no questions on Rooney were allowed.

Gill did, however, address the Rooney issue by insisting that "we will make a statement at the appropriate time".

Despite high-level talks between the Old Trafford decision-makers, the Glazers have made it clear to Ferguson that he has full control over Rooney's future.

The United manager will be free to decide whether Rooney stays or goes and, should he sanction the player's departure, the Scot will be in control of both the timescale and the destination.

Although Ferguson has yet to publicly disclose his intentions, the prospect of losing Rooney is understood not to be troubling the 68 year-old to the extent of the disappointment he felt when accepting that Cristiano Ronaldo should be allowed to leave United for Real Madrid in June last year.

Ferguson's anger at Rooney's response to being omitted from the United team in recent weeks has driven a wedge between the two men. However, until Ferguson confirms his intentions to Gill, there remains an outside chance that a rapprochement could take place before the transfer window opens in January.

That prospect is unlikely and the United manager issued a thinly-veiled criticism of Rooney when discussing the club's work with Unicef.

He said: "Our work with Unicef has made some of our players, particularly the younger ones, realise what the real world is like. It's been an eye-opener and a real education for them.

"It's taught them to understand how lucky they are, being in the environment they've been brought up in and the cocooned life they've got, in terms of their wealth and things like that.

"That's very difficult with modern-day players because most of them are wealthy and in a comfortable situation. So it's wonderful to watch them make that transition to changing their attitude."

If Ferguson was in turmoil over Rooney, it barely showed as he smiled his way through a video clip of Ryan Giggs's recent Unicef visit to Sierra Leone.

The United manager appears to have already made his mind up on Rooney and it would be no surprise if he brushed the situation off on Tuesday by simply declaring that the player wants to leave.

If that happens, Ferguson must then decide whether to allow him to make the three-mile journey across town to Eastlands.