Skip to content

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho insists Juan Cuadrado was no panic buy

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Jose Mourinho insists Juan Cuadrado was not a panic buy

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho is adamant new signing Juan Cuadrado was not purchased out of transfer deadline panic.

On Monday, the Londoners allowed World Cup winner Andre Schurrle to return to Germany in a £22m move to Wolfsburg, before announcing the arrival of Colombia winger Cuadrado.

Mourinho's Premier League leaders paid Fiorentina £23.3m for the 26-year-old, but the Portuguese highlighted the one-in-one-out policy.

"I don't think it's the best thing for him that I speak about expectations," he said. "He needs his time. He is not a panic buy. It's a reaction to Schurrle's departure."

He (Cuadrado) needs his time. He is not a panic buy. It's a reaction to Schurrle's departure.
Jose Mourinho

On Schurrle, he added: "We are happy with what he gave us. We are happy with the investment we made in him one-and-a-half years years ago and we are happy with the profit we did in this transfer window.

"Hopefully, we made him a better player and hopefully he can have success in the future because we like him very much."

Mourinho appeared reluctant to speak to the media at the press conference in the wake of striker Diego Costa being retrospectively suspended for a stamp on Liverpool's Emre Can.

More from Aston Villa V Chelsea

When asked as to the availability within his squad, he answered: "Filipe (Luis) is injured and the player who is suspended is suspended."

Speaking ahead of Saturday's trip to Aston Villa, Mourinho was asked about his silence and replied: "Because if you want, you can make a silence very noisy. You could make noise with my silence. It depends on you (the journalists).

"If I was a journalist I could make from silence lots of words. We are one side. The other sides - it's up to them to consider whether they are title contenders or not. We consider ourselves title contenders."