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Jose Mourinho labels big spending clubs 'economic sharks'

 

Agency
Saturday 31 August 2013 14:19 BST
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Manager Jose Mourinho of Chelsea talks to the media after the UEFA Super Cup
Manager Jose Mourinho of Chelsea talks to the media after the UEFA Super Cup (Getty Images)

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Jose Mourinho has labelled clubs who continue to spend big in an era of Financial Fair Play as "economic sharks".

The Chelsea manager was speaking about UEFA's FFP policy which was designed to ensure a club's expenditure does not exceed its income.

A summer of lavish spending has ensued regardless, though, and Mourinho - who believes his club have taken a correct and prudent approach - is unhappy that some continue to splash the cash.

"Clubs have to think about the future, where financial fair play will make us think about football in a different way," he said in an interview with ESPN which was carried by several national newspapers.

"We have already started but other clubs seem to think FFP will never start or they think they can override what FFP says and determines. They have continued spending incredible sums. We have gone with another thought."

Chelsea have not exactly traded on a shoestring themselves, with the likes of Andre Schurrle, Marco Van Ginkel, Willian and Samuel Eto'o all arriving for varying amounts.

Mourinho, though, points to an investment in youth as evidence that Chelsea are using the market sensibly.

"The club has invested in young players and, with those young players mixed with the players who came to Chelsea in the past, we are constructing a team to compete directly with those who invest more," he said, with 32-year-old Eto'o the exception to that.

"But we are happy. We have a young team with a bright future. We have two players almost for every position, some more experienced, some with more potential for growth. And we have other players, loaned out for one, two or three years, that have to come back.

"And with less investment, we intend to maintain the level of these economic sharks who seem like they will continue with the desire to buy and they will keep buying. I'm happy for them that they have that objective."

The former Real Madrid coach, now in his second spell at Chelsea, added: "I am used to these injustices. I won the Champions League with Porto without investing and playing teams who had spent money. It was not mentioned much."

Mourinho's sense of foul play has hardly subsided over recent days owing to the fallout from his side's Super Cup loss to Bayern Munich.

The Portuguese hinted at a conspiracy against him after his side ended with 10 men, saying referee Jonas Eriksson had "killed" the game by dismissing Ramires.

He feels equally strongly about FFP too, making reference to the perceived criticism he faced after heavy investment during his first spell with Chelsea.

"After I arrived at Chelsea at the start of Mr (Roman) Abramovich's investment, he spent money and bought players, and when I won they said it was because I had spent money," he said.

"And now we do not buy players, the others do and I do not see the same sort of opprobrium criticising these clubs spending a huge amount at a time when, socially and politically, Europe is not in a very good moment.

"I do not see the same sort of criticism. That is the injustice."

PA

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