Date: 25th August 2013 at 12:00pm
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Rooney-bench

Jose Mourinho believes that Manchester United are being old fashioned by refusing to sell Wayne Rooney to another Premier League club and their stance isn’t helpful to the English game.

Chelsea have already had two bids rejected for Rooney and although they’re expected to make one big final offer it looks as though United won’t budge, yet reports suggest that the player would be for sale if a foreign party was interested and Mourinho argues that English clubs should want to keep the best players in their own competition.

“I think that old-fashioned mentality of “I don’t sell players to clubs in the same country” doesn’t help the market.

“Sometimes you push players to play abroad when you should be interested in keeping them in your league. You see in Italy what happens in every season without any problem, a player goes from Milan to Inter, from Inter to Milan, from Roma to Juventus, from Juventus to Inter.

“And they do this all the time. You see Inzaghi, Inzaghi played for Juventus, for Milan. From the big ones, only Totti stayed for life. All the other big guys… Pirlo: Inter, Milan, Juventus.”

(Daily Mail)

In one way he has a point as it is within the interest of the Premier League to hold onto as many world-class players as possible but at the same time I don’t think United want to give Chelsea a boost in the title race.

The most concerning thing from the quotes in the Daily Mail was his response when asked if Juan Mata could be used in a deal to sign Rooney. Mourinho didn’t answer whether he would consider it or not and just said that Manchester United have not asked for Mata when rejecting the Blues’ advances for their player. Of course that doesn’t mean he will but we all know how that element of doubt will be exploited in the mass media.

Mourinho also denied that the Rooney saga is all about unsettling David Moyes and Manchester United but at this stage it looks unlikely and the above comments would probably wind them up, so it’s looking like there’s no chance of a deal at this stage, especially if the stories over a cut-price Samuel Eto’o are true.

Whatever happens the whole thing has added a bit more spice to an already heated encounter on Monday night.

 

One response to “Chelsea manager accuses United of being ‘old-fashioned’ over Rooney”

  1. Rama says:

    moyes is old fashioned as mourinho speaks. this means moyes fears compitition.