Mourinho: Torres not leaving

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho is adamant that
Fernando Torres will not be sold during the
transfer window.

Mourinho has three strikers at his disposal this
season following the recent arrival of Diego
Costa and the return of Didier Drogba but the
Chelsea boss insists each of the trio are
essential to his squad.
Torres has struggled to find the form which
tempted Chelsea to part with £50m for his
services in 2011 but in an exclusive interview
with Sky Sports News the Portuguese said: “We
have a good squad.
“The perfect squad would be with this 18
players, not 17 or 16, but rules are rules and
we are working hard, even here, for not to have
these kind of problems in the future.
“We want to have more English players in our
squad which we are going to have in the future
but in this moment we are still in the middle of
this process.
“So at the moment we have to make a decision
about one player not to be on that list.”
And when asked whether this one player was
Torres, the 51-year-old was quick to confirm the
Spain international would be staying at
Stamford Bridge:
“No. Three strikers is fundamental in a squad
and we have three strikers; Fernando, Didier
and Diego so one of them is not going for sure,”
he added.
Looking ahead to next season, Mourinho has
ruled out naming a vice captain claiming any
member of his side is capable of deputising for
long-time skipper John Terry.
“The captain is John and everyone knows that,”
he said. “He has been the captain for 10 years
so after him anyone can be the captain. It is
something I am not worried about.
“What we need to have is people with
experience with personality with desire to win
with the group, with club connections and a
great feeling towards the younger players.
“We have so many of them that we don’t need
this vice-captain status.”
Competition On Thibaut Courtois’ return to the
squad and the battle for the No 1 spot with Petr
Cech, Mourinho added: “We have competition
for places all over the pitch.
“This is a club that wants to be strong and have
real possibilities to compete for trophies so we
need competition in every place.
“I know Mark Schwarzer is a very good
goalkeeper, very stable, a group man,
completely ready to be our second goalkeeper
like he was last season when we needed him to
play.
“So if he is our second goalkeeper we feel very
safe with him, but to have Petr and Thibaut
together in the same squad is a good problem
for me.”