Soccer: Mourinho says Mata sale right

Manchester United paid a club record £37 million for Chelsea's Juan Mata. Photo / AP

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho says he was so convinced Chelsea were doing the right thing in selling midfield talent Juan Mata that he would also have sanctioned the Spanish midfielder's sale to title rivals Arsenal and Manchester City.

The Chelsea manager launched a detailed explanation of the reasons behind the record-breaking 37 million ($74.2 million) transfer of Mata to Manchester United (a club record, beating that of the 30.7m transfer of Dimitar Berbatov from Spurs) and criticised Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger for suggesting it was a way of undermining fellow challengers for the Premier League championship.

Asked if he would have sold to Arsenal or City, the teams directly above Chelsea in the Premier League table, Mourinho said: "Yes, honestly. A team can only play with 11 players, not 12. City, Arsenal and United are full of top players, so if Juan plays for them, it means somebody else is not playing. So why not? It's the same in other countries [that players move among top clubs], so why not here?

"We had clubs that contacted Chelsea, but with a real offer adapted to the potential of the player, and to what the player means to Chelsea - only United offered that."

To Wenger's complaint that Chelsea benefited from Mata facing Arsenal and City in a United shirt in the second half of the season, Mourinho said: "Wenger complaining is normal because he always does. This is the market. We don't do the market, we don't do the rules ... he should be very happy that Chelsea sold a player like Juan Mata. But I think it [complaining] is also a bit of his nature.

"Manuel Pellegrini said yesterday that he did not agree with the principle of Mata joining United in mid-season. I think if a player plays for a club for more than half of the season, a club with money can take the best players from the other teams. But the rules allow it, so [there is] nothing to say."

The Manchester City manager clarified that his complaint was not because United were still to play City at Old Trafford, while they have taken on Chelsea twice already.

"I think in this transfer window, players that play more than five or six games for the same club should not change to another," he added.

Mata's transfer was presented as an amicable divorce, the ultimate separation on good terms with an equitable settlement and mutual best wishes for the future.

Mourinho even went as far as to say that he wished Mata well at Manchester United, as Chelsea fans reluctantly consign their devotion to their bewitching little Spanish No 10 to the past.

Mourinho has been many things over the years: an agent provocateur, a bluffer, a wind-up merchant and he knows how to spin a tale. But this time, he was trying to convince Chelsea supporters of the wisdom of the most unpopular decision of both his stints as manager of the club.

This is, after all, Mata, the man who won Champions League and Europa League winners' medals in his first two seasons at the club; a footballer capable of playing more consecutive games than many of his peers could manage on an Xbox. He takes with him those quick feet, that unerring eye for a goal and that unwillingness to track back that Mourinho found so hard to accept.

Faced with explaining his decision, Mourinho decided that it was best everyone was honest. Out of the Chelsea side since the turn of the year, he said that Mata could go to Old Trafford because he deserves respect, he deserves to be happy and to play where he wants to play. He accepted that Mata was affected, disappointed, frustrated by his position at Chelsea.

Mourinho has previously regarded any unwillingness in a player to conform to his team ethic as a kind of betrayal.

"Mata," he said, "has earned the right at Chelsea to be regarded differently. He was fantastic for Chelsea and Chelsea was fantastic for him. We are not afraid of him going. We want him to go there and be happy to do very well for United."

If that makes Chelsea fans gasp, then consider that Mourinho was presenting Chelsea as being the bigger club in this transfer axis, "the special club", as he put it. That meant that before long he was back on the subject of Wayne Rooney, the man he says he cannot talk about.

"To say, 'You cannot go now, Juan, because United refused to sell us Wayne Rooney in the summer', that's not the way for us to act."

- The Independent