Transfer rumors, and especially those having to do with Wayne Rooney, shouldn’t always be taken so seriously, but there might be something there when recent reports suggest Chelsea are willing to spend quite a lot in order to get him away from Manchester United.
According to the Daily Mail, Chelsea are willing to spend £60 million (sounds a bit exaggerated), and offer Rooney £240,000 per week in order to make this deal happen. How true is it? No one knows, but as long as there hasn’t been any word from United or Rooney about him definitely staying, it seems that anything can happen, and anything can be reported on the matter.
It’s quite clear that from certain interviews other United players are having, like Rio Ferdinand for example, there is a concern that even though Alex Ferguson is no longer involved, Rooney isn’t satisfied or too happy about staying at the club. He wants to know he’ll be part of a frontline or maybe he simply has had enough.
In any case, United, if they are actually going to allow any transfer involving Rooney to go down, would prefer it to happen with him joining someone outside the Premier League, like Barcelona, if the reports in Spain are true. However, with David Villa officially going to Atletico Madrid, that interesting proposition for an exchange deal that also involves Thiago is off, and it’s interesting to see if the Catalan papers have other creative ideas.
Chelsea themselves are getting slightly desperate in their search for a striker or a big-name player in general. Almost all of those they’ve tracked for quite some time have gone elsewhere, leaving them with quite a lot of money to spend, but with thinning options, and so far only Fernando Torres and Demba Ba on the roster as strikers, something Mourinho isn’t likely to settle for.
The question is – how true and serious is this Rooney business, but the answer, like in the Robin van Persie saga last year, might take a very long time for us to get an answer for.