Its official, Wayne Rooney wants to be dressed in blue once again. Nine years after leaving the blue of Everton for the red in Manchester United, Rooney now finds himself craving a Chelsea hue of blue.
What started as early summer rumors has now become a lot more serious with Rooney publicly expressing his wish to switch clubs and even submitting a written transfer request. According to ESPNFC.com, The 27-year-old striker is now even going as far as telling his teammates that he will be in fact joining Chelsea very soon.
Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has a mutual interest in bringing England’s fifth highest goal scorer in their national team’s history to West London. After seeing an ambitious first bid of around €20 million swatted away by United, Chelsea returned with an improved sum of €30 million that was rejected earlier this week.
Reports out of England are suggesting another bid being put together very soon, with Mourinho going on record that Rooney is his sole transfer target.
The feud between Rooney and United has been going on since the end of last season. Rooney, whose quick temper and ego have been well documented over his career, became upset at the lack of respect he was receiving from Sir Alex Ferguson and Manchester after Robin Van Persie arrived from Arsenal and stole the show with his scoring exploits.
With Van Persie playing so well, Rooney’s own personal scoring numbers went down and his position in the lineup became in question. Sir Alex’s decision to leave out Rooney from an important Champions League match for “tactical” reasons only enraged him all the more.
If United really wanted Rooney to stay they should probably have consulted him first before they brought in David Moyes to replace the retiring Ferguson. Rooney never got along great with Moyes during his time at Everton, as he mentions in his autobiography.
In credit to Moyes, he did arrive in Manchester with keeping Rooney happy high on his to-do list. However, his firm stance on denying Rooney any sniff of a move away and a few harsh comments have only infuriated the striker even more.
Moyes reportedly angered Rooney when he suggested the England star would be needed “if for any reason we had an injury to Robin van Persie”.
Rooney’s sparkling United career now looks set to come to a dramatic ending. After being bought at the age of 18 from his boyhood club Everton for €25.6 million back in 2004, Rooney has gone on to score 180 times for the Manchester club and is now their fourth all-time leading scorer.
He was named England Player of the Year twice and won the Premier League title a total of five times.
It should be known that Chelsea is not the only club vying for Rooney’s signature. Arsenal, Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain, and Real Madrid all have been credited with interest, but the Blues are heavy favorites to win the race.