Jose Mourinho has insisted Manchester United should not be scared of selling Wayne Rooney to Chelsea.
United have rejected two bids for Rooney ahead of tomorrow night’s clash between the two clubs, insisting they do not want to sell to a rival – but Chelsea will try again with a new £40million offer after the Old Trafford match.
Asked if he would sell one of his best players to a rival, Chelsea boss Mourinho replied: “Yes. You see it happen in Italy every season without a problem.
“I don’t know why it doesn’t happen here. I don’t think the old-fashioned mentality of ‘I don’t sell players to the clubs in the same country’ helps the market.
“It doesn’t help the players and sometimes you push players abroad when you should be interested in making sure they play in your league.
“When you keep players in your league, you are contributing to making your league the best. So when you want to sell and you push the players abroad, I think you are giving the wrong contribution to the league.”
Mourinho used William Gallas as an example of letting an unhappy player leave to join a rival.
Defender Gallas moved to Arsenal in 2006 as part of the deal that saw Chelsea sign Ashley Cole. Perhaps that gives United encouragement that Mourinho would sacrifice Juan Mata to land Rooney.
“We had Arjen Robben unhappy, we sold him to Real Madrid because he wanted so much to go to Madrid,” said Mourinho. “We had William Gallas unhappy, we sold him to Arsenal.
“I was so sad about Gallas because he was fundamental for us. But he want, he want, he want, he want to go and we couldn’t stop him, so we decided NOT to stop him.
AFP
Mourinho doesn't see why United shouldn't sell Rooney to the Blues
“As you know, in this club it wasn’t an economical problem. The player just wanted to go. [Ricardo] Carvalho and [John] Terry were playing central defence all the time and he [Gallas] wanted to be first choice all the time.
“He was playing many matches in a position that wasn’t his best position. He was playing left-back and sometimes Wayne Bridge was playing, so he wasn’t happy.
So we thought it was a fair situation to sell William in the end.
“Many times players are unhappy because they want new contracts. Other times they are unhappy because they want to leave.
“Sometimes they are happy and the agents are unhappy, and it is all about a new contract and more money. But after two days they are happy again! Other times, it’s because they really want to go.”
Mourinho dismissed conspiracy theories that he has talked up his interest in Rooney to try to destabilise Premier League champions United.
“I don’t understand those theories because it is normal that we would want to strengthen our squad in every position,” said Mourinho.
“We did it from the goalkeeper, we did it in midfield, in the creative positions, we did it in the striker’s position where we have kept the players we had last year and a player returned from loan.
“It is basic and normal, and we want to give more quality to the whole structure. It is obvious that the striker position was a position we would try to improve.”