Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho has said that he came close to bringing in both Angel Di Maria and Radamel Falcao to the Stamford Bridge last Summer, but did not close the deal due the their high wage demands.
The two players joined English rivals Manchester United in August last year. While the Argentine winger came to Old Trafford in a record transfer fee of A?59.7 million after an illustrious spell with Spanish giants Real Madrid, where he helped the club win their tenth Champions League title last year, Falcao joined Louis van Gaala s outfit in a huge A?6 million season long loan deal from Ligue 1 side Monaco.
Mourinho has revealed that his agent Jorge Mendes, who also represents both Di Maria and Falcao, came to him with the offer to sign the players for the Blues, but he had to turn it down because with the regulations of UEFAa s Financial Fair Play, Chelsea wouldna t have been able to afford the South American duo.
a Jorge told me Di Maria and Falcao are his players and he has to find solutions for thema , the Portuguese manager was quoted as saying via the book a The Key to Mendesa by The Sun.
a But if Chelsea doesn’t have the financial capacity to pay eight, nine or ten million euros a year, because of fair play, of course Mendes has to think about his playersa , he added.
Chelsea sold David Luiz to PSG for A?50 million, Demba Ba to Besiktas for A?4.7 million and Romelu Lukaku to Everton for A?28 million to finance the deals of Cesc Fabregas, Felipe Luis, Diego Costa and Loic Remy last summer.
Mourinho also felt that meeting the playersa massive salary demands would have created a huge wage difference amongst the squad causing a furore in his dressing room, and hence he decided to pass on this opportunity
a We couldn’t bring Falcao or Di Maria because I didn’t want to, either. I can’t have a player earning 10 million when others earn three, four or five. That would have caused an explosiona , the former Real Madrid manager further explained.