Rooney to Force His Move by Submitting Transfer Request. How?

Lately, I’ve been amazed by some papers saying that, in order to force his move, Rooney will submit transfer request to Manchester United’s board. It’s believed by doing so, Manchester United will be eager to let him go. How on earth a transfer request by Rooney has so much power that can force a Manchester United to sell one of his best players to their rival? How powerful is that request? That can only make me laugh.
Transfer request, is a formally written-letter directed to management and that’s all about it. It doesn’t have real legal power or anything that can really force a club to sell the player. There’s no real format or template of transfer request letter. So this must mean there’s no significant difference between a player stating his desire to leave the club publicly through media, personally talk to the board and manager on his desire to leave the club quietly, and submitting formal transfer request.
Transfer request, however, can causing havoc among fans and in dressing room. The relationship between the wantaway player and all the players, staffs, boards and fans might be on real tin ice since it’s officially written by the player. It means that, the impact caused by submitting transfer request is more obvious since it’s internally known by all members of the club and fans. Unlike published by the media, which can’t be fully trusted since it can only be made up rumours just to sell their papers.
Then again, it’s only that. I still can’t believe a formally written transfer request can push a big Premier League club to sell their player. The only thing that can push both club and player is only the contract between them, which is agreed by both parties. Rooney actually has no power in determining his move unless it’s allowed in the contract, which is highly impossible. That said, Rooney has to respect the contract and it forces him to do so. If he doesn’t or he breaches it, he could face legal action by Manchester United which could end up in court proceedings. Not just that it would make him pay lots of money and wasting his time, but could also make him stay at Old Trafford until his contract ends. Unless Manchester United did something wrong and against the contract which made Rooney feels unhappy.
No Rooney or Bust?
I actually think that this time, Chelsea have nothing to lose on this saga unless Chelsea spend some more money on Rooney. Rooney is a great player but to me he’s quite overpaid with his reportedly £250k a week. Whether Chelsea could face punishment through Financial Fair Play or not due to its expense, I don’t think having an overly expensive player is a good idea. Simply because at the moment we already have many players who are far cheaper than him – half of his salary – and some of them were better performed than Rooney last season. To name a few, one of those guys is Juan Mata.
Furthermore, we currently have 4 strikers (Lukaku, Ba, Torres, and Schurrle) who can play as lone striker in 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 and it’s still enough if we want to play with two strikers in 4-4-2. Or if you trust Mourinho that he would put Rooney behind striker, we already have too much talents in Juan Mata, Eden Hazard, Oscar, and De Bruyne to play in that area. That said, having Rooney isn’t really necessary at this point.
But don’t get me wrong. If we could buy Rooney with our current bid (estimated around £25m – £30m) and he’s willing to slash his wages, it would be fine signing to me. Having Rooney, despite we’re not lacking depth in his position, will improve Chelsea squad in certain aspect. His direct-play, composure, versatility, work rate, and strength in one package will be massive addition which current Chelsea young talents aren’t really great at.
It’s nothing to lose situation for Chelsea unless we pay him too much and he’s underperforming in Blue shirt. But thinking that Rooney could force his move to Chelsea by submitting transfer request is plain stupid. All in all, I wish that we could soon hear the end of this saga from the media since it’s already entering the ridiculous level.