Chelsea sign Falcao after Cahill and Terry recommend him
John Terry and Gary Cahill were the men who influenced Jose Mourinho to give Radamel Falcao a chance to prove himself in the Premier League.
Colombia international striker Falcao signed on loan from Monaco earlier this month and will join Chelsea’s training camp in Canada on Tuesday ahead of their North American tour.
Falcao left Manchester United in May after a disappointing loan spell that brought just four goals in 29 appearances last season saw the Reds decide against keeping him, and he is desperate to silence the doubters and critics in England.
According to Mirror, Terry and Cahill told boss Mourinho that when playing against Falcao in April they could still see signs of the old Falcao — the one who had ripped Chelsea apart in the UEFA Super Cup in 2012, scoring a hat-trick for Atletico Madrid.
Mourinho said: “It’s his motivation.
"When you are not a top player, you never feel frustrated. When you are a top player, you have to live with this all through your career and you adapt to it. We felt his frustration.
“He is not happy that, in England, people think he is not as good as he is, and his motivation is there.”
The Chelsea boss said: “We believe so. I was not in Portugal when he was at Porto, but I watch Portuguese football very regularly.
“In Porto, he was very good; and when he was at Atletico, I was in Real Madrid so again there were a few years where I was watching him all the time.
“Last season I watched our game against Manchester United a few times because of him - when he played at Stamford Bridge. I spoke with John and Gary a lot about him and we think the bright movement is there. The movement to get freedom in the box to score goals is there.
“Our players had difficulty to control him and we feel the potential is there. Let’s see if he can improve his confidence, his happiness. We have a good community of Portuguese-speaking people, plus the guys who were with him in Atletico. Diego Costa and Filipe Luis. Let’s see if this situation can help him.”
He went on: “I don’t want to go in the Man United direction. Our team is our team. If we want to play with Costa and Falcao together, it is something they did before when they were in Atletico.
“We think all the conditions are good. We are not going to put any pressure on him. We are not expecting him to join us Tuesday and then play on Saturday and score a hat-trick.
“We are going to let things go without any pressure, but all the support he can have. Let’s go calm.
“He arrives Tuesday and I don’t play him on Saturday [in Chelsea's friendly against Paris Saint-Germain in Charlotte, North Carolina]. I will give him half an hour against Barcelona [in Washington, DC, next Tuesday].
"He has to be ready for the first League game [at home to Swansea on August 8], maybe not the Community Shield [against Arsenal on August 2]. But after two-and-a-half weeks of training, he must be ready.
“He can be second, first or third choice. He knows, Diego knows and Remy knows that. It is open competition between the three of them. That’s our objective, that’s why we want three strikers ready and important.
“Last season, Remy was basically the third forward, but he scored so many important goals for us in crucial moments that gave us crucial points - the goal against Hull [in the 77th minute of a March away game, to turn a 2-2 draw into a 3-2 win], the goal against Stoke [a 63rd-minute winner in the Blues' very next game, when the score was 1-1].”
The Blues are set to take on the New York Red Bulls, PSG and FC Barcelona in America, before they return to England to face Arsenal in the Community Shield on August 2nd.
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