Mourinho: Pogba is the Eiffel Tower, I love the Eiffel Tower but I can't have him
It has been a quiet transfer window for Jose Mourinho and Chelsea as the top teams all around Europe are breaking the banks to strengthen their teams, noticeably are Chelsea's Manchester based rivals who have been very active in the transfer dealings this summer.
Jose Mourinho have only signed like for like players - replacing Didier Drogba with Radamel Falcao who was signed on loan from Monaco and Asmir Begovic replaced Petr Cech who moved to rivals Arsenal.
The Portugese is keen on signing Everton defender John Stones with a new bid in place next week for the young England defender.
Pogba have been rumoured to join every top club in Europe this summer, Jose is a huge admirer of the French midfielder but he will still be satisfied with his current team if he doesn't get either of the two aforementioned.
Speaking to the Guardian, Mourinho said: “To go for somebody it’s because I lose somebody,” he says. “It’s because somebody wants to leave and because somebody brings the perfect offer for Chelsea to accept. I think the market is inflated. I only have to look at what is happening in my own country. [Portugal] is a country in trouble generally – socially, politically, economically. It’s a country in trouble, people are suffering a lot, there have been a lot of cuts, old people have trouble with their pensions, tax is higher, salaries, jobs, everything.
“This season Porto pay €20m for Imbula, they give Casillas an amazing salary, Sporting are paying millions for coaches and players. Football breaks every situation. This season we are saying: ‘Oh, look at this amount for Sterling.’ But it will be worse next season. Next season someone will pay £60m. Football is like this – one season is financial fair play, the next is a way to dribble [past] the financial fair play. It doesn’t upset me. I’m happy with the way that we are doing things I am happy with the challenge of fighting against this power. I told the players that we are the same team and the others are not the same team. I cannot stop opponents to make an assault to the banks and spend millions and millions. I cannot stop that. I cannot stop [that] the others have a feeling that we are playing against the champions.
“The others are spending. The others are buying a lot to try to be better than us and the fact that we are the same – we are changing a goalkeeper for another one, a striker for another one.”
“It’s a big challenge. To be better with the same people, the players have to be better individually than they were last year. So when they think: ‘Oh last season I did great,’ this season it is not enough,” he added.
“John Terry – great season. This season it is not enough. Must be better. Fàbregas – I don’t know how many assists last year. Fantastic. It’s not enough. Because the others are going to improve with the players they are bringing and we have to improve by ourselves with our work.”
Concerning Pogba, he said “Pogba is not to put pressure on people,” Mourinho says. “Pogba is one of the top players in the world. Pogba goes to any team and improves that team automatically. If he stays at Juventus, Juventus will be very strong again. If he goes somewhere else he will improve immediately a team. This is not our case. We are changing Cech for Begovic, we are changing Didier for Falcao and we are changing kids by other kids. I think everybody has an interest in Pogba. But there are things you can do and things you cannot do. I love the Eiffel Tower but I can’t have the Eiffel Tower in my garden. I can’t even have the Eiffel Tower of Las Vegas.”
He also speaks about the evolution of Chelsea from the legendary Frank Lampard. Drogba, Terry led era to this new team - “I think 10 years ago or five years ago every Chelsea supporters would say: ‘I can’t see Chelsea win a title without Frank Lampard.’ And Chelsea won the title without one of the three best players of the last 10 years and we did it. No one is irreplaceable. Difficult to replace, yes. To replace one by one is very difficult, very difficult. To replace by good time, a good structure, a good dynamic, good options, it’s possible.
“One day when he stops, and I don’t think it will be next season, we have created already a situation for John to be replaced. I always think in this direction, I always did imagine now for the first time in my career my perspective is to stay in the club for more time than before.
“I had this thing in my mind to go to different countries and try to win different leagues. I will be here for the next 10 years if the club doesn’t sack me.”
“When a players is injured or has bad consequences of a big injury there is sometimes nothing you can do. We made ourselves sure that was not the case with Falcao because if that was the case he would not be with us,” he says.
Jose Mourinho believes Falcao was unfortunate not to perform at Manchester United and he is hoping he can pick up form at the Stamford bridge.
“He didn’t perform [at United] for many reasons. Some players don’t perform with me, some players don’t perform with Chelsea, they go to other clubs and they perform. This can happen. So we know that Falcao is in good conditions related to the surgery he had before he went to Man United.
“We believe that he can with us and to replace a big player like Didier we wanted to go with another big player with experience, ready, so these three strikers for us – Falcao, Rémy and Diego. We are very happy.”
