Is Wayne Rooney Worth The Effort?

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has stated that Wayne Rooney is the club’s only transfer target this summer and that there is no contingency plan should they fail to get their man. This statement is almost certainly untrue, as the world’s biggest clubs utilise vast scouting networks and draw up shortlists with a variety of options for each position.

What Mourinho’s statement does is put pressure on Manchester United and further unsettle the already ‘angry and confused’ Manchester United frontman. The past season has been difficult for Rooney being dropped for several big fixtures including Real Madrid at home, Sir Alex Ferguson’s claims that he had handed in a transfer request (which the forward denies), and Moyes recent disclosure that Rooney will be understudy to the Dutchman Robin van Persie.

If Chelsea were to get their number one target he would certainly have a point to prove to his previous employers, this is one factor which makes the pursuit of Rooney a worthwhile venture. If he can recapture the form of earlier years when he won the PFA Player of the Year Award for the 2009-2010 season and was Manchester United’s most important player then it would be great business for Chelsea.

Perhaps Rooney will become a titan of the game once again just by being at a club where he is truly valued and is once again the talisman of the team in his preferred number ten role. A new challenge may be just what the striker needs to rejuvenate his stale career. The issue is that it is a big gamble, the striker may simply have lost his spark in a similar way to Torres and one thing the past season shows is that he has been unavailable to deal with adversity. The signing of van Persie relegated Rooney to a smaller role in the team, he was unable to fight his way back into the side as a first choice option and improve his form when it was required.

Rumours of Chelsea offering David Luiz or Juan Mata as part of the offer for Rooney have turned out to be wide of the mark and for Chelsea fans gladly so. Mata is one of the best midfielders in the Premier League capable of winning matches single handedly and providing an assist or goal every time he steps onto the pitch, whilst David Luiz has just started to become the player Chelsea hoped he would be when they signed him and off the back of a great Confederations Cup performance it would be foolish to sell the Brazilian, particularly as part of a deal for Rooney.

Signing the Scouse striker is a risk in itself, without offering two fantastic players as part of the deal. However, in business you have to take risks and it is much the same in football. Chelsea clearly need a world class striker to replace the Drogba shaped hole in their current team and in that respect Rooney fits the bill. There are other players available for this role such as Higuain, Suarez or a possible promotion for the young Lukaku but there is admittedly not much choice, as Arsene Wenger has stated “The competition in Europe is very hard at the moment. There’s a lot of money and not many players” (Source: Mirror). For this reason it may just be the case that Chelsea will have to take the plunge and hope that Rooney can rise to the challenge better than he did last season.

You can follow Ross McCutcheon on twitter @RossMcCutcheon

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