Chelsea have long since stated their desire to keep the striker at Stamford Bridge after he made such an impact last season whilst on loan at West Brom but a pursuit of the want away Rooney could make a difference in terms of whether they want to keep the striker to warm the bench or give him more valuable Premier League experience.
Rooney came on as substitute at the Liberty Stadium yesterday as Man Utd beat the Swans 4-1 on the opening day of the season but he has stated his desire to move away from Old Trafford and Chelsea have already had two bids turned down for the striker.
Today’s Sunday papers report that they are ready to step up their offer to £40m which may be enough to persuade David Moyes to sell the player for the second time in his career.
Lukaku scored four times for Chelsea in pre-season – more than either Demba Ba (3) or Fernando Torres who failed to get off the mark but the potential arrival of Rooney may seem his chances becoming more limited in the side.
We also know that the Swans are looking to add a new striker into their squad – Michael Laudrup said the very thing during the week – and they have been long term admirers of Lukaku. With the lure of European football they also make an attractive destination from Chelsea’s point of view and the arrival of him would give us some really strong options up front between Bony Muchu and Lukaku.
Laudrup has also been a long term admirer of Kenwyne Jones but he was in the Stoke side yesterday that were beaten 1-0 at Liverpool whilst Peter Odemwingie is also a reported target with his future at the Hawthorns looking almost non existent.
We genuinely wouldn’t be surprised to see Lukaku end up here but that move is purely dependent on them signing Rooney and with a £40m bid in the offing it will be interesting to see how strong Man Utd’s resolve is on that particular front.
Interesting couple of weeks ahead
