Chelsea Transfer News: Latest Buzz on Blues' Pursuit of Wayne Rooney

Each day brings news regarding Wayne Rooney's possible move away from Manchester United. He's made his desire to leave the club no secret, nor have Chelsea kept their interest in him private.

Jose Mourinho would like to point out, though, the Blues have operated with the utmost of professionalism in their chase for the 27-year-old striker. According The Guardian's Steve Brenner, Mourinho said:

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We are doing things legally, making the official bid directly to the club, no interviews or comments or direct relations with the player, no contact, absolutely nothing. We are doing everything in an ethical way, so let's see if things change.

There is no time limit. We have our squad of strikers. We have identified the player as one we would like to have with us. We have done it in an ethical way and we are going to do that until the last day. And we will see how it comes.

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From the Special One's point of view, it's hard to argue that Chelsea have done anything wrong. In this day and age, it's so hard to accuse a club of "tapping up" a player. There's so much happening behind the scenes between players, agents and journalists that clubs don't even have to do anything. Everybody else has a hidden agenda and gets in the player's ear.

As a club, keeping your intentions out of the public sphere is extremely hard to do.

All it takes is one club official or agent to talk to the media, and then everything is out in the open. Given how well informed even fans are becoming in the digital age, it doesn't take much for a player to be made aware of another club's interest in his services.

In the case of Rooney, once Chelsea made the official bid, it was all over from there. Mourinho couldn't possibly have done anything personally that would have unsettled the English international any more than he already was.

If David Moyes and Manchester United really have a problem with the way Chelsea have handled the bid, perhaps they should think back to their pursuit of Cesc Fabregas. Moyes publicly confirmed the club was pursuing the Spanish midfielder.

What Mourinho is doing is no different.

Speaking of Moyes, he had some choice words for the English media after Rooney trained with the reserves. It was seen as the manager taking the player away from the senior team as some sort of punishment.

However, according to The Guardian's Jamie Jackson, Moyes had Rooney train with the reserves only because he is recovering from an injury:

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Wayne has trained and some of you might not like hearing this but I didn't fall out with Wayne. Some of you wrote untruths. Anybody who wrote anything else is misleading their readers. He trained with the reserves [on Thursday and Friday] because it was his asking.

He couldn't have contact because it was a shoulder injury. It was as a floating player which means he doesn't play for either team, just in case any of you are unclear what I mean about that. He played as a floating player so that he didn't get injured. Anyone who wrote anything else was mistaken.

I'm quite enjoying talking about Wayne because I'm hearing so many of you getting it wrong and I know most of you. I think you're a bit cleverer than that but some of you aren't acting that way.

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You have to give Moyes a lot of credit. The last thing you want to deal with as a new manager is having one of your best players demand a transfer, especially when you're replacing a legend like Sir Alex Ferguson. Yet Moyes has remained steadfast in his resolve regarding Rooney staying at the club.

On the other side, Rooney has really bunkered in as well. According to ESPN FC's Richard Jolly, the striker still remains convinced he'll have new surroundings this summer:

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Jose Mourinho has already had two bids for the England striker rejected, but a source close to United told ESPN that Rooney is convinced he will be headed to Stamford Bridge and has said as much to his colleagues at Old Trafford.

Several of the United squad are reportedly unhappy with Rooney, who has ignored their appeals to extend his nine-year stay with the Premier League champions, and their relationship has not improved with the attacker increasingly confident he will go.

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As much as he might sulk, Rooney can't force this deal through. United are in a place where they can afford to pay him and send a message that they won't be bullied into selling any players they don't want to.

No matter what the outcome, there will likely be a large segment of fans who will be happy when September 2 rolls around. That seems to be the only way that this whole saga will finally meet its end.