Former Manchester United and Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho believes the transfer ban should not be an excuse for Chelsea this season as he is hopeful that their new boss Frank Lampard will steer the Blues to safer shores without even making any acquisition in the upcoming season.
Mourinho has encouraged Lampard to make the best use of the young, talented players from the academy that he has at his disposal. The Portuguese tactician has always had a soft corner for Chelsea at his heart and believes his old club are better equipped to fight this transfer ban than most other clubs at this point in time.
If the Blues could sneak in Christian Pulisic from Borussia Dortmund last season, the United States talisman comes in as a direct replacement for Eden Hazard who departed from Stamford Bridge to join Real Madrid this season. They failed to tie up a deal with Mateo Kovacic to keep the Croatian midfielder at the club permanently. Mourinho has backed the youngsters to do well for the club in the upcoming season and he has backed two players – Tammy Abraham and Kurt Zouma. The former Manchester United manager feels that these two players could have a massive impact in the upcoming season.
‘It depends on what you have in the academy, that’s the point. I think every manager in the world loves to play with kids from the academy,’ Mourinho told Sky Sports. ‘The question is: what is the product from the academy? What can you work with to improve? I think Chelsea is a very special club in relation to that. Let me just give an example: Chelsea need a centre-back – Kurt Zouma! You don’t need to buy, you don’t need to spend. Zouma!
Mourinho highlights how the young French centre-back has won the league with Chelsea and has experience of playing with Stoke City and Everton other than the Blues in the Premier League.
‘He is champion of England, he played for Chelsea, played for Stoke in the Premier League, played for Everton in the Premier League, played for France. He is your player, he’s on loan, where are you going to buy a better player than him? You already have him’, he added.
The Portuguese tactician was also vocal about his choices and he feels Tammy Abraham has been neglected a few times and this is the perfect opportunity for the young man to flourish in Chelsea colours.
“You want a young striker – Tammy Abraham! He is yours. He knows the club. He was made at the club, he was educated at the club. He was on loan, he had already played some matches in the Premier League, he played in the Championship but the Championship at the highest level with the responsibility of playing at a big club like Aston Villa. He is ready.”
“Do you need to buy a young centre-forward? No! Chelsea were criticized many times for the number of players they had on loan – more than 30 players, 40 players – but now the moment has arrived and they have answers like nobody else could have,” Mourinho opined about Abraham’s future at the club.
However, the former manager also agrees that losing a player of Eden Hazard’s calibre is a huge loss and that void can’t be filled at the moment but according to him the Blues are well equipped with their youngsters up and ahead of their new campaign.
“They have the answers, so I don’t think it’s any problem for them. The only problem for them is the obvious which is that they lost a phenomenal player. Eden Hazard was a special player for Chelsea and they lost him, apart from that I don’t see any problem for them”, he concluded.
Despite the strong words, the Blues lost 4-0 to the Red Devils at Old Trafford on the opening day of the season. They will now face United’s fierce rivals Liverpool, who were crowned the Champions of Europe last season tonight in the UEFA Super Cup match.
