Two of the biggest transfers of the current Barclays Premier League season are Radamel Falcao and Angel Di Maria. Both of them now wear the red jersey of Manchester United. Although Falcao’s loan deal is yet to be made permanent, Di Maria is now a Red Devil for good. Chelsea under Roman Abramovic has been known to spend big on top players, but they chose not to invest in either of the two new Manchester United stars. According to the Daily Mail Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho was quoted saying in the book The Key to Mendes, “I can’t have a player earning €10m when others earn three, four or five. That would have caused an explosion.”
Falcao and Di Maria share the same agent as the Special One – Jorge Mendes. Mendes had offered the dynamic duo to Mourinho before Manchester United. However due to Financial Fair Play restrictions and their wage demands, the Blues boss decided against bringing them to Stamford Bridge. The Colombian sensation is earning a reported salary of £265,000-a-week while the former Real Madrid playmaker is taking in £200,000-a-week.
Mourinho was further quoted saying in the book , “Jorge [Mendes] told me Di Maria and Falcao are his players and he has to find solutions for them. But if Chelsea doesn’t have the financial capacity to pay eight, nine, 10 million Euros a year, because of Fair Play, of course Mendes has to think about his players.”
Even though the former Real Madrid manager decided against signing Falcao and Di Maris, he did bring in Cesc Fabregas, Diego Costa, Filipe Luis and Loic Remy in summer of 2014 for £88 million. However, these deals did come at the cost of letting some of his players go elsewhere. French giants Paris Saint-Germain acquired defender David Luiz for £50 million, Everton purchased striker Romelu Lukaku for £28 million and forward Demba Ba was transferred to Besiktas for £4.7 million.
ITV News quoted Mourinho saying, “We couldn’t bring Falcao or Di Maria because I didn’t want to, either.” Who knows… they may not have been special enough to the Special One!