The Blues had three bids rejected for the Manchester United striker.
Chelsea only signed Samuel Eto’o because of their failure to land Wayne Rooney from Manchester United, according to technical director Michael Emenalo.
The Blues made three bids to land Rooney during the summer transfer window, but were unsuccessful with each as United stood firm in their efforts to keep the England forward at Old Trafford – leading manager Jose Mourinho to switch his attentions to Eto’o.
And Emenalo, right-hand man to owner Roman Abramovich, claims the Cameroon striker was only brought to Stamford Bridge after it became apparent their pursuit of Rooney was destined to hit a dead end.
“In the case of Samuel Eto’o, it was an open secret that we wanted Wayne Rooney and I don’t need to explain what the idea is behind wanting a player like Rooney,’ he explained to Metro.
“We weren’t able to get Rooney and we had Lukaku, Ba and Torres, we felt comfortable with them but we also felt comfortable to bring Eto’o to give us a little bit of competition.
‘We wanted to freshen up that position.”
As a result of Eto’os arrival the west London club opted to farm Romelu Lukaku out on loan for the season to further aid his development, with the Belgian youngster linking up with Everton following a prolific stint at West Brom last term.
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