Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho believes “every player has a price” and he would sell an unhappy squad member. Mourinho used Chelsea forward Eden Hazard, who recently signed a new contract until 2020, as a hypothetical example when Raheem Sterling’s situation at Liverpool came up yesterday.
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Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers this week insisted Sterling was not for sale after talks over the England forward’s contract reached an impasse. Mourinho understands the approach of Rodgers and Liverpool, but would treat the situation differently, just as he did when Zlatan Ibrahimovic wanted to leave Inter for Barcelona.
“I don’t like players that don’t want to play for me and my club, clearly,” said Mourinho, speaking ahead of the Premier League leaders’ clash with Stoke.
Raheem Sterling is fully entitled to make his own mind up. Make choices that will prove to be right or wrong. It’s his life, his career.
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) April 3, 2015
“Every player has a price. It doesn’t matter which player. If you ask me now, for example, Eden Hazard; we can speak about him because he’s signed a new contract.
“Do I want him to leave Chelsea? No. If he wants to leave, if he doesn’t want to work with me, if he doesn’t want to play for Chelsea, does Eden Hazard have a price? I think he has a price. He’s the best player in the Premier League, so I go to the best as an example.”
Mourinho, though, stressed the final decision was with the club. He added: “I also understand the philosophy of managers and clubs who want to keep the players at any price, who want just to say, ‘there is no price to sell – the player stays, whatever’. My philosophy is not better than that – it’s just different.
“Either way when a player has a contract with a club, the club, the manager and the board have the power to decide what to do. “The club that sells is in control – not the club that buys, not the player, not the agent, not the cousin.”
Mourinho is yet to decide whether to risk Diego Costa after the striker suffered a recurrence of his hamstring problem in last month’s 3-2 win at Hull and withdrew from international duty with Spain.
Since gaining promotion to the Premier League in 2008, Stoke have played Chelsea away eight times in all competitions and lost on every occasion.
Manager Mark Hughes said: “We have been able to go to the likes of Manchester City and Tottenham this year (and get results) and our away form for the most part has been good. We have proved to ourselves that we can go to top clubs and get positive results, and hopefully we will do more of the same at the weekend.”
