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Chelsea set to increase offer for Wayne Rooney to £28m
CHELSEA are set to make a third offer for Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney worth in the region of £28million.
In the next 48 hours Chelsea are expected to lodge an increased bid for Rooney - upped from £25m to £28m - after seeing their first two approaches for the England international rejected.
If their third offer fails, Chelsea are prepared to turn to Anzhi Makhachkala striker Samuel Eto’o, who is available at a cut-price £5m.
However, Jose Mourinho remains intent on bringing Rooney to Stamford Bridge this summer after watching his Blues side labour in the second half against Hull despite running out 2-0 winners.
Goals from Oscar and Frank Lampard gave Mourinho a successful return to Chelsea, but the Portuguese boss admitted a new striker remained a priority.
"We will try till the last day to add a new player to the squad, a striker," said Mourinho.
"But in this moment every striker has a club, every striker belongs to somebody and I don't think it's ethical that I name players that belong to other clubs.
"We don't try, like many clubs do, to go around and try to influence players to behave in a certain way.
"If we have to make a bid, we make it in an official way, we don't speak to players, we speak to clubs."
Express Sport understands that Chelsea have set a deadline of August 26 to sign Rooney, before they head to Old Trafford to take on United in the Premier League.