Chelsea Are Confident Of Landing Rooney And Have Made His Signing A ‘Priority’

With the summer transfer window now open, there is plenty of gossip doing the rounds in the newspapers so we’ll keep you up-to-date with the latest transfer rumours. Today, Chelsea remain confident of signing Wayne Rooney.

Chelsea remain confident they will head into the new season with Wayne Rooney as their centre-forward and have made signing the Manchester United striker a top priority, according to the Independent.

Rooney’s future at Old Trafford has been in doubt ever since former boss Sir Alex Ferguson revealed the striker asked to leave the club towards the end of last season after being left out of a number of key games, including the decisive Champions League quarter final second leg against Real Madrid.

New boss David Moyes insisted at his first press conference last week that the 27-year-old would be staying at United this summer, but the Independent claim this has not deterred Chelsea from thinking they can pull off a major coup and the signing of Rooney is now Jose Mourinho’s No.1 priority this summer.

Rooney has spent the last nine years at Old Trafford since joining from Everton but with just two years left to run on his current deal, the report suggests that Chelsea are confident he won’t sign an extension and feel they can therefore persuade United to cash in now rather than see his value drop considerably as he edges closer to the end of his contract.

Should the planned swoop come off, the newspaper claims Mourinho will then look to offload either Fernando Torres or Demba Ba to make room for the England ace, but Romelu Lukaku is expected to stay in west London this season and will be part of the squad that flies out to Bangkok on Thursday for the clubs pre-season tour.

There is no doubt if Chelsea can sign Wayne Rooney this summer it would be a major coup but whether United will be willing to sell a key player to a title rival remains to be seen. There is sure to be interest from abroad as well so the decision may come down to Rooney’s desire to remain in England. If he wants it enough and Chelsea are prepared to pay, we could well see him lining-up alongside Terry, Lampard, Cole, etc, next season.

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