Jose Mourinho expects the pressure to be off Chelsea
next season after their summer of prudence in the transfer
market.
No longer the extravagant spenders of Roman Abramovich's first four
summers in England, The Blues have so far brought Steve Sidwell,
Claudio Pizarro and Tal Ben Haim to Stamford Bridge on free
transfers this summer.
In contrast, champions Manchester United have already spent around
the £40million mark on three players, and Liverpool are also
expected to open the chequebook in order to bankroll a title
challenge.
With North London rivals Arsenal and Tottenham also looking to
strengthen, Mourinho believes the media should not be quick to
burden Chelsea with the tag of favourites for the Premier League
trophy.
"People ask Chelsea, 'Last season you won two trophies; why did you
not win four?' But not many journalists ask Rafael Benitez and
Arsene Wenger, 'Why zero?' And not many people ask Manchester
United, 'Why only the Premiership?'," said Mourinho in the club's
official magazine.
"Is it about money? If it is, I hope that next season the media put
pressure on the big spenders because the big spenders for sure will
not be Chelsea.
"The spenders will be Liverpool, Manchester United, Tottenham and
maybe Arsenal. I don't know, but it won't be Chelsea for
sure.
"So maybe at the beginning of next season they will say that
Chelsea are not the favourites any more because the club did not
spend so much money."
The ever-quotable Mourinho has also wielded a bizarre analogy to
explain the hit-and-miss nature of bringing through his young stars
at Stamford Bridge.
"Young players are a little bit like melons. Only when you open and
taste the melon are you 100 per cent sure that the melon is good,"
Mourinho added.
"Sometimes you have beautiful melons but they don't taste very good
and some other melons are a bit ugly and when you open them, the
taste is fantastic.
"One thing is youth football, one thing is professional football.
The bridge is a difficult one to cross and they have to play with
us and train with us for us to taste the melon.
"For example, Scott Sinclair, the way he played against Arsenal and
Man United, we know the melon we have."
