Rooney Excited By Changes

Wayne Rooney admits the changes to the squad in the close season are exciting, even if he is sorry to lose pals John O'Shea and Wes Brown to Sunderland.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with MUTV, the Reds striker fully understands why the two defenders opted to head to the Stadium of Light to begin new chapters in their career.

And, if an era is ending with Paul Scholes and Edwin van der Sar joining Gary Neville in retiring, the acquisition of Ashley Young, David de Gea and Phil Jones means a new one is about to start.

"It's obviously sad to lose all those players from the dressing room," Rooney admitted. "On the other hand, it's exciting having new players coming in.

"You want to see how the new players get on in training and in the games so it's certainly exciting as well.

"Of course it's always sad when some of your team-mates leave, especially good friends as well. It's sad but I understand as the two of them [Brown and O'Shea] didn't have much football last year, Wes particularly in the last couple of seasons.

"They're ambitious footballers and want to play every week so I understand why they have left but I'm sad to lose them as players and friends as well.

"They've been here for years, my whole career I've been here, and they've been fantastic to me and everyone around the place. They were well liked as well so it's certainly going to be a loss for us but they'll be excited to start a new life at Sunderland."

Rooney is already relishing the prospect of facing the Black Cats on 5 November with the fixture at Stadium of Light scheduled to be United's final game of the season.

"To be honest, I'm looking forward to it even more," he stressed. "It's always nice to play against some of your former team-mates and hopefully they'll be chasing me a lot!"

Summer 2011 Permanent Transfers
Ins:

David de Gea (Atletico Madrid)
Phil Jones (Blackburn)
Ashley Young (Aston Villa)

Outs:

Nicky Ajose (Peterborough)
Wes Brown (Sunderland)
Owen Hargreaves (Released)
John O'Shea (Sunderland)
Paul Scholes (Retired)
Edwin van der Sar (Retired)