Manchester United Line up £30m La Liga Striker to Replace Rooney - Report

Manchester United have reportedly identified Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema as an ideal replacement for the unsettled Wayne Rooney.

The Red Devils have informed David Moyes, who will take over from Sir Alex Ferguson as manager this summer, that he can decide whether to keep the 27-year-old at Old Trafford next season, according to The Sun.

The report claims United chiefs are willing to consider offers of around £25m for Rooney, which they would then use to fund a £30m move for Benzema, who has 19 goals and 14 assists to his name from 45 appearances in all competitions for Madrid this season.

The Frenchman has two more years left to run on his contract at the Bernabeu but United are long-time admirers of Benzema and attempted to sign him from Lyon in 2009 before Los Blancos snapped up the forward for £35m.

Rooney is understood to have met Ferguson two weeks ago, demanding a transfer away from United, which was rejected by the Scot. The England international remains unhappy playing out of position in midfield and sometimes starting from the bench.

Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich and Chelsea are also understood to be monitoring Rooney's situation at United. It will be interesting to see if Moyes decides to keep the former Everton man at Old Trafford, given the chequered relationship between the two.

The Everton boss sued the United forward in 2008 following criticism from the player in his autobiography, in which Rooney slammed Moyes' management style during his time at Everton.

Rooney Slams Reports He Removed United from Twitter Bio

Meanwhile, Rooney has slammed newspaper reports that stated the player intentionally removed "Manchester United player" from his Twitter bio, heating up the speculation surrounding his Old Trafford future.

"There's a load of rubbish being written about me changing twitter bio saying I have deleted Manchester United from it. I have never deleted Manchester United from the bio whatever the papers are saying because it was never on there," Rooney stressed.

"All that happened was that I was asked by Nike to add @nikeuk to it - the same as many other sportspeople they sponsor. Funny, no one's written about that though! That change was made THREE weeks ago and yet people are talking about it as if its something that was put up yesterday," the player added.