Mourinho reign starts with Rooney bid

Jose Mourinho launched his new reign at Chelsea with a
sensational bid for Manchester United star Wayne Rooney and
a friendly victory in Bangkok on Wednesday.
The charismatic Portuguese, in his first game back after six
seasons away, led a side brimming with new faces to a 1-0
“training session” win over Singha All-Star XI.
But the game, in front of tens of thousands of blue-shirted
Thai fans, was completely overshadowed by news that
Chelsea had tabled an undisclosed bid for the unsettled
England striker.
Mourinho said the bid, for a reported 10 million pounds (11.5
million euros, $15.1 million) was “clean” and “ethical”, and he
contradicted reports that Juan Mata or David Luiz had been
offered as make-weights.
Jose Mourinho
“End of story — we made a bid and now it’s up to Man United
and it’s up to the player,” he said, adding that Chelsea were
not targeting any other players.
“We love the player, we are interested in the player, we made
the bid. We have nothing more to say and nothing more to do.
And now we have to respect and be ethical in this process,”
Mourinho said.
“The official bid is just about a certain amount of money, it
doesn’t involve players and it doesn’t involve players in the
possibility of the negotiations to continue,” he added, raising
the prospect of another offer.
Rooney is said to have asked for a transfer in May and he
lasted just a few hours of United’s pre-season tour before
departing with a minor hamstring injury.
This week, reports said he was “angry and confused” at
comments from new boss David Moyes which suggested he
would play second fiddle to Robin van Persie this season.
Mourinho’s Chelsea are rated as the biggest threat to
Manchester United’s title defence as Moyes attempts to follow
Alex Ferguson’s 27-year, 38-trophy reign.
And Chelsea got off to a positive start under Mourinho by
beating the All Stars — who shocked United in Bangkok last
week — 1-0 courtesy of a Romelu Lukaku first-half penalty.
Kevin De Bruyne was a chief threat on his debut, after
returning from a loan spell at Werder Bremen, and he whistled
a thunderous shot past the uprights on 23 minutes.
Lukaku was also posing problems early on and he forced a
sharp save from the goalkeeper after galloping through one-
on-one on the half-hour.
But the first goal of Mourinho’s new era came from the spot
after Brazilian right-back Wallace, Chelsea’s new signing from
Fluminense, went down under a challenge in the box.
And Lukaku made no mistake with his left foot as he drove
the penalty low and to the ‘keeper’s right for his first goal in a
Chelsea shirt, with 35 minutes gone.
The six foot four (1.93 metre) Belgian might have had another
but his first-time shot in the box was again parried away.
Both teams switched nearly their entire teams at half-time
and it was a disjointed second period from the Blues.
“It was a good experience for us, because they were very well
organised tactically, they were very compact… I think my team
were always in control,” Mourinho said.
“It was a good training session,” he added.
Mourinho said veteran midfielder Frank Lampard had been left
out as a precaution after taking a knock to the kidneys.
Chelsea now head to Kuala Lumpur and then Jakarta as they
continue their build-up to the new season.