Chelsea Transfer News: Wayne Rooney Must Move for His First-Team Future

Wayne Rooney’s Manchester United career has been cast in further doubt following the latest comments made by manager David Moyes during the club’s tour of Asia.

According to the Mirror, Moyes identified Rooney as cover for Robin van Persie, were the Dutch striker to ever pick up an injury.

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Overall my thought on Wayne is, if for any reason we had an injury to Robin van Persie, we’ll need him. Wayne can play up on his own, he can play dropped in. It’s going to be a time to see how I work with Wayne.

Manchester United isn’t about Wayne Rooney. Manchester United is about the team – the club. I won’t allow Wayne Rooney to become more important than the football club and the football team, because that’s the heart of it.

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The Scottish helmsman is of course correct in his assessment; no one man is an island, after all. However, Manchester United’s “loss” might be considered Chelsea’s gain in the end.

Indeed, the plain and public nature in which Manchester United’s boss made his notions clear might frustrate and even worry Rooney.

Italian football journalist Tancredi Palmeri reinforced exactly that view on Twitter.

Usually, should a manager have ill feeling toward a player in their squad—especially a player as big as Wayne Rooney—they’ll keep most truths to themselves and shield their inner thoughts from the media.

However, Moyes is being perfectly candid in his approach to the Rooney situation, a tactic which could work in one of two ways.

Chelsea’s rising interest in Rooney has been helped on by the amount of strike targets heading elsewhere this summer.

Mario Gomez has already moved to Fiorentina, Robert Lewandowski should become a Bayern Munich forward for free next summer, Edinson Cavani is reported by ESPN as close to a Paris Saint-Germain transfer while the Mirror say Stevan Jovetic is on his way to Manchester City.

In short, resources are drying up—fast.

Rooney, a tested talent in the Premier League, could therefore be better served by opting for a move to Stamford Bridge.

The Blues would undoubtedly be one of a few clubs able to finance the forward’s exorbitant wage demands, and the lack of prolific striking options in West London mean that he’d probably become first choice in attack.

The only alternative for the 27-year-old is to stick around and fight for his place in Manchester United’s plans. Last season, Rooney was played out wide, in the hole, and even as far back as central midfield in some instances, but was always second fiddle to Van Persie.

With a similar script seemingly set to be written for the upcoming season, it remains up for debate as to just what kind of role Rooney would serve if he were to continue what’s fast becoming quite a nightmare at the Theatre of Dreams.