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Wayne Rooney will be made Manchester United captain if he commits himself to the club by signing a new deal.

As revealed by Mirror Sport, the England star wants to stay at Old Trafford, and preliminary talks have already begun between his agent Paul Stretford and the club.

Striker Rooney will be offered a new four-and-a-half year deal worth around £300,000-a-week, with the armband as an added incentive.

And the champions' top brass have already shown their commitment to the England star by ensuring he knew all about their record-breaking move for Juan Mata in advance.

The 28-year-old was also informed of manager David Moyes’ other plans for this transfer window and the summer.

Both current skipper Nemanja Vidic and vice-captain Patrice Evra are poised to leave the club at the end of this season, when they will be out of contract.

United boss Moyes has long seen Rooney as captaincy material and will offer him the chance to lead the club into a new era of success.

With Rio Ferdinand also set for the exit door at the end of the season, Rooney will become one of the elder statesmen in United's cosmopolitan squad.

Old Trafford officials hope their club-record £37.1million capture of Mata from Chelsea will convince Rooney to commit his future to the Reds.

Rooney’s next contract is likely to be the last mega-money deal of his stellar career and United are prepared to reward their leading striker accordingly.

The England international looked set to quit in October 2010 after refusing to sign a new deal, citing the club's perceived lack of ambition.

While he was persuaded to put pen to paper, the club have fingers crossed that, by keeping him fully abreast of their transfer strategy and targets this time, they have transformed the situation and ensured Rooney wants to become a cornerstone of the next stage of the Old Trafford project.

Moyes remained coy on whether he would be able to make any more signings in addition to Mata before the closure on the window at 11pm on Friday.

“I don’t think we’ll have any more in January,” said the Scot. “I’m still working on it and looking to do things.

“We know exactly what we’d like to do and if it changes in the last week, which sometimes it can do, then we’ll try. I hope it will be the first of some new signings that will arrive, but more likely in the summer.”