It's been revealed that Manchester United went to extreme lengths to keep Wayne Rooney out of the clutches of Chelsea back in 2014 - and they even managed to wrap up a deal for Juan Mata without speaking to their Premier League rivals at the same time.
United shelled out around £37.1million to bring Mata to Old Trafford after the Spanish maestro had fallen out of favour with then-Blues boss Jose Mourinho. However, a deal to sign the playmaker was anything but straightforward given Chelsea's interest in striking a deal for Rooney.
A new report from The Athletic has shed some light on how United managed to pull it off. The club were wary of the Blues interest in Rooney and, as such, former chief executive Ed Woodward was reluctant to take any calls or sit around the negotiating table with the Chelsea hierarchy.
