Is Jose Mourinho Actually Considering a Bid for Wayne Rooney?

Nine years after nicknaming himself “The Special One,” Jose Mourinho returned to Stamford Bridge a “different person.” A “Happy One,” as he put it.

“Time flies,” he told reporters at his introductory press conference on Monday, via the Guardian. “It feels like it was a couple of days ago, but it was nine years ago [when I first arrived].” 

And soon after his initial appointment as Chelsea manager, he not only embarked on a spending spree that would see the club to its first title in 50 years, he also jumped head-first into a managerial mind-game contest that already included Manchester United’s Sir Alex Ferguson, Arsenal’s Arsene Wenger and would soon consume Liverpool’s Rafael Benitez.

While Mourinho reserved a special respect for Ferguson, whom he called “The Boss,” he did not go nearly as easy on Wenger and Benitez. Indeed, he seemed to take a certain joy in winding them up, whether by labeling Wenger a “voyeur” because he believed the Frenchman was obsessed with his side or by telling the press Benitez had been “thinking about Real Madrid” during Chelsea’s Club World Cup defeat to Corinthians, which the Spaniard oversaw.

Mourinho has mastered the art of distraction (at least he probably thinks he has), and his comments made in the same press conference regarding Manchester United attacker Wayne Rooney should be interpreted this way. 

When asked about the unsettled 27-year-old, who earlier this spring requested a transfer away from Old Trafford, Mourinho had only nice things to say, offering that Rooney was “at a fantastic age for a player,” had “big experience” and was “still young,” via Goal.com.

But it was his next two sentences that had everyone in a tizzy, attempting the two-plus-two-equals-five mathematics that would link Rooney with a summer move to Chelsea.

“It’s up to him and what he wants, what makes him happy,” Mourinho said. He added, “He’s a little bit like me: he doesn’t need one more pound in his contract...Be happy.” 

To be sure, if the opportunity to sign Wayne Rooney suddenly presented itself, the old/new Chelsea manager would surely jump at it. But his Monday remarks were almost certainly not about a very public advance on the England international.

Rather, they were spoken to perhaps unsettle a player and give the new administration at Old Trafford something to think about—to distract. And if they in fact did neither, so what?

Part of what makes Mourinho so fascinating is the mind-games he plays, both with his counterparts and with the press. We were reminded of that during his press conference on Monday, and we’ll no doubt revisit this topic during his latest spell at Chelsea.

At the end of the day, it’s all just a bit of fun.