Rumour: Chelsea seal Samuel Eto'o deal from Anzhi Makhachkala

Samuel Eto’o

Chelsea‘s pursuit of Wayne Rooney has been put on hold after The Telegraph revealed that the London club has agreed a deal for the Anzhi Makhachkala forward Samuel Eto’o.

The transfer fee for Eto’o is rumoured to be around £2 million and the deal will be a part of the negotiations to acquire the Brazilian midfielder, Willian for £30 million.

Reports say that Jose Mourinho will officially announce the deal for Eto’o after Chelsea’s clash against Manchester United on Monday.

32-year-old Eto’o previously had stints at Barcelona and Inter Milan before becoming the highest paid player at the Russian club.

“That old-fashioned mentality of ‘I don’t sell players to clubs in the same country’ I think doesn’t help the market,” Mourinho said when asked about United’s stand on the Rooney saga.

“It doesn’t help the players, and sometimes you push players to play abroad when you should be interested in keeping the players to play in your league because when you keep players in your league you are contributing to making your league the best league, so when you want to sell and you push the players abroad I think you are giving the wrong contribution to the league”, he added.

Eto’o, along with other star players, were put up for sale by the Russian club after the owner decided to pull out much of his funding. Chelsea are also expected to loan out Victor Moses after this deal but are unlikely to sell Juan Mata.