Wigan boss Paul Jewell has scoffed at Jose Mourinho's moan about
the current weakness of his Chelsea squad.
Despite having by far and away the greatest financial resources of
any Premiership manager over the past two years, Mourinho has still
bemoaned what he perceives to be a lack of options at Stamford
Bridge.
However the struggling Latics, who travel to Chelsea on Saturday,
currently have just 17 players available and Jewell says he would
happily tackle Mourinho's problems rather than his own.
"We've a lot of injuries - nearly as many as Chelsea, eh?" said
Jewell.
"It shows how short we are because I've included Ryan Taylor in the
squad, and not being disrespectful, but he is not ready yet.
"So I think if you said to Jose 'Wigan have lost their last six
games and they have lots of injuries', he would think it's a good
time to be playing us.
"So I'd love to have his problems because at the end of the day,
whatever side he puts out tomorrow, it will be better than ours on
paper.
"You've obviously heard of wife swap, well we'll do a job swap -
and wives as well! Why not?"
Jewell's attempts to build a strong squad have been hampered by his
struggles in the transfer market, and the Latics boss admits he is
growing frustrated at his inability to coax new faces to The JJB
Stadium.
"I'm sick and tired of being on that phone," Jewell
continued.
"We've made offers which have been rejected. For different reasons
transfers haven't happened, and it's really tiresome.
"How do I get players to come to Wigan? We're in a relegation fight
and we're not an established club. It's hard getting players to
come here, it really is difficult."