Jose Mourinho has taken a not all all thinly veiled swipe at Manchester United for throwing money at former Southampton full back Luke Shaw by claiming that had his club signed the England international, it would have "killed Chelsea"
Mourinho claimed that Financial Fair Play and the stability of the dressing room were the principle reasons Chelsea didn't match what was supposedly, an eye watering offer from United for the 19 year old.
“If we pay to a 19-year-old boy what we were being asked for, for Luke Shaw, we are dead, We kill our stability with financial fair play. We kill the stability in our dressing room.
“Because when you pay that much to a 19-year-old kid — a good player, a fantastic player — but when you pay that amount of money, the next day the players knock on the club’s door and say, 'How is it possible I play for this club 200 games and won this and that; how come a 19-year-old comes here and gets more money than I get?’ It would kill immediately our balance and we don’t allow that.”
Chelsea are of course notoriously conservative when it comes to splurging out cash on transfer fees and wages, a fact illustrated by their meagre transfer business this summer which included the signings of Diego Costa from Atletico Madrid, Cesc Fabregas from Barcelona and Felipe Luis from yes, Atletico Madrid. This transfer business was admittedly mostly paid for by fees Chelsea received for various players in their quest to adhere to Financial Fair Play.
Still, there are a great many things Jose Mourninho and Chelsea can lecture the rest of the footballing world on, but perhaps, just perhaps, transfer fees and wages are not a couple of them.
Now Diego Simone and Atleti; they can say what they want.
Quote: Telegraph
