Howard Kendall: Everton FC should start planning Wayne Rooney transfer bid

Wayne Rooney celebrates scoring for Everton FC

IF I was still the Everton manager today I’d be wondering whether I could get together the money to make a bid for Wayne Rooney in the summer.

With all the hype about him being left out of the team for Manchester United’s defeat by Real Madrid on Tuesday, I just wonder whether there’s a chance he could be lured back to his spiritual home when this season has finished.

Certainly the speculation that he will leave Old Trafford has perhaps never been more widespread in his nine years at the Red Devils.

It has been well documented that the lad had to leave Goodison because of the financial predicament at Everton, and the chairman felt he couldn’t turn down that sort of money at the time.

Now I know Everton haven’t been transformed with millions of pounds of new capital since then, but think back to January and the talk about how much money they might receive if a certain current player decides to leave in the summer.

Then you can perhaps seriously wonder about putting together a deal to get Rooney.

Maybe he is the sort of player who needs Champions League football at his next club – but I’m not so sure every player is as desperate for that as we read in the papers.

Rooney is blue through and through and wouldn’t lose his place in the England team just because he perhaps had to miss out for a season.

Sometimes I think this talk about needing to play in the Champions League is more a device engineered by agents to give them leverage when they’re doing deals.

I know it certainly wouldn’t be easy to get him back because some very wealthy clubs would also be in the race but wouldn’t it be great?