AFP/Bangkok

Mourinho, speaking shortly after the bid was confirmed by Chelsea, said he did not know whether Manchester United had accepted or rejected the initial offer.

But he said the bid, for an undisclosed sum, was “clean” and “ethical” and repeated Chelsea’s denial that it involved any player as a make-weight.

“End of story—we made a bid and now it’s up to Man United and it’s up to the player,” Mourinho told journalists in Bangkok, after a 1-0 friendly win over the Singha All Star XI.

“We did what we had to do in a proper way, in an ethical way,” Mourinho added. “We’re very happy with our behaviour because it was clean... and we will see what happens because now he’s not with us, now he’s with Man United.”

Mourinho was speaking after his first game back in charge of Chelsea was completely overshadowed by confirmation of the attempt to buy the unsettled England striker.

The Portuguese manager said Chelsea had made no bids for any other strikers “And we won’t”, answering “Yes” when asked if it was “Rooney or bust” for Chelsea.

“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,” he said.

British media earlier reported that United had rejected an offer of £10 million (11.5 million euros, $15.1 million) for Rooney, with either midfielder Juan Mata or defender David Luiz thrown in.

“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,” Mourinho said, raising the prospect of another offer.

Chelsea had earlier issued an unusual, one-paragraph statement confirming the bid and denying reports of the make-weights, blaming briefings in Sydney—where United are currently on tour.

But Mourinho refused to criticise the handling of the situation by United, whose new boss David Moyes has repeatedly stressed that Rooney is not for sale. 

“For me the way is to respect the player, to respect Man United, respect my colleague David, to respect even my players,” he said.

“The bid is there, the club knows we want the player, the player has to know because he knows that we made a bid for him, and now it’s up to them. And we will always respect their decision.”