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Jose Mourinho appears to take swipe at relentless Chelsea spending.
Jose Mourinho claims that Roma are unable to compete in the transfer market and appears to have taken a subtle shot at Chelsea’s ‘limitless’ spending.
Following Todd Boehly’s buying of the team in May, the Blues have committed to spending over £400 million on players. At the weekend, they outbid their neighbours Arsenal to sign Mykhailo Mudryk from Shakhtar Donetsk for a sum close to £90 million.
The first guaranteed payment for Mudryk’s transfer to Stamford Bridge is over £60 million, with performance-related add-ons and bonuses covering the remaining sum.
After succeeding Claudio Ranieri in 2004, Mourinho was one of the first coaches at Chelsea to enjoy the luxury of lavish spending.
During his first year in west London, Mourinho brought in players like Didier Drogba, Arjen Robben, Petr Cech, and Ricardo Carvalho, and the spending continued until his hurried departure in 2007.
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Mourinho, who is currently in charge of Serie A club Roma, joked that he must find other methods of bolstering his squad rather than simply spending money to solve an issue because he doesn’t have the same financial resources at his disposal.
“I worked at clubs with those sorts of practically limitless funds,” Mourinho said.
“There are more and more clubs nowadays who fit that profile, but it’s not our profile. We work, we give our all, we work with the characteristics we’ve got.
“We need to find a solution, we can’t just buy Mudryk for €100m!”
Mourinho’s Roma have been in decent form in Serie A this season, winning 10 of their 18 games played to date, but still only sit 7th in the table after strong starts from Napoli, Milan, Juventus, Inter, Lazio and Atalanta.
They also have a Europa League play-off tie with Red Bull Salzburg to look forward to, with a place in the last 16 at stake.