Chelsea head coach Jose Mourinho says neither FC Barcelona nor Atletico de Madrid have any power in their pursuit of the West London club’s Belgian ace.
Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho says that the west London club have no intention of selling their young Belgian goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, despite reports of interest from FC Barcelona and Atletico de Madrid.
Courtois has spent the last three seasons on loan at Atleti, making some remarkable saves in the process, and he has been a major reason for Diego Simeone’s team’s emergence as title challengers in La Liga, who even lead city rivals Real Madrid at present.
The 21 year-old Courtois looks well capable of becoming one of the best in the world, and has already won 14 caps for Belgium. In his home country, he is already considered the greatest goalkeeper since the legendary Michel Preud’homme.
The Blues boss instead says that he will be happy to have the dilemma of which of Courtois and current Chelsea custodian Petr Cech to select between the posts next season.
“We control the situation,” said Mourinho to the Daily Express.
“Not Barcelona. Not Atletico. Not another team that can be interested in one of our goalkeepers.
“We don’t have a problem. Teams with a problem are teams without good goalkeepers.”
“Petr came here very, very young and immediately, first game of the season, Chelsea-Man United, clean sheet.
“The book is full of clean sheets and the guy is fantastic. His work ethic is amazing. I think he’s a very young goalkeeper.”
Mourinho did concede however that he had not ruled out selling one of the pair if the situation proved problematic.
“In this moment I don’t think about it,” continued the Chelsea boss.
“It’s a good decision. We have the best goalkeeper in the world and the best young goalkeeper in the world.
“I don’t think many people disagree with me. If somebody disagrees it will not be by far.
“It’s a very good problem. Our goal is safe and financially we are also very safe because their value in the market is the value of the best.”
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