Rooney: We can win the league

Manchester United captain Wayne Rooney firmly believes that his side are one of the frontrunners to win the Premier League title next season.

Rooney's confidence stems from the fact that United managed to turn their season around after only registering three victories in their first 10 games of the 2014/15 season. Following their poor start, the Red Devils only lost five more games on their way to finishing fourth and clinching a spot in the Champions League qualifiers.

"I honestly believe we will go far next year and won't be far off challenging for the league," Rooney said on his official website. "If you look at the first 10 to 11 games we only had around 13 points, and if you look at where we finished I think it shows we could have been up there with a better start.

"We've dominated and outplayed most teams this season but haven't taken our chances to win those games, it could have been a different story if we had."

Rooney added that it would have been a major disaster if United had missed out on the Champions League once again next season.

"Our main target this year was to get back into the top four, and we have done that so in that sense it's not bad at all," he said. "You have to realise that at the start of the season we had a new manager, new coaches and a lot of new players, so it was always going to be a tough ask for us to go and win the Premier League."

However, the 29-year-old was disappointed that United's trophy cabinet remained empty at the end of the recentlyconcluded season.

"It was a bit disappointing not to win any silverware, especially the FA Cup after the defeat to Arsenal in the quarter-finals; we had a great chance of going on to win that," he said. "After last season it would have been a disaster if we didn't get that Champions League spot, but the main thing is that the club is now back where it belongs."

United have only added Memphis Depay to their roster thus far, but have been linked with a number of other players, including Real Madrid defender Sergio Ramos and Bayern Munich midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger.

Should United be able to sign both players, along with a few more reinforcements, Rooney believes that it will further strengthen their chances of winning the Premier League title and additional silverware.

"The most important thing is that as a squad, including the manager and myself, we believe we are close to challenging for the title and with a couple of signings we will have a good chance of doing that," Rooney said. "It would be good to win as many cups as possible, a club like Manchester United should be winning trophies and hopefully next season we can put that right."