Sunday, 21st September, 2014
Jose Mourinho admits he was surprised Chelsea were able to snap up Cesc Fabregas from Barcelona this summer, with the Portuguese believing the Blaugrana were grooming the midfielder to replace talisman Xavi.
Fabregas has been in superb form since joining Mourinho's men this summer, playing a key role in Chelsea's strong start to the campaign.
Eyebrows were raised when Arsenal opted not to use an option to bring Fabregas back to the Emirates Stadium when he was made available for transfer, allowing Chelsea to take him to Stamford Bridge.
But for Mourinho, that Arsenal did not sign Fabregas was not the real surprise, with that being that Barcelona allowed him to leave in the first place.
"His numbers for a midfielder are fantastic; the number of assists and the quality he brings to the game. But, for them [Diego Costa and Fabregas, ed.] to be playing so well the team has to be playing well. [Branislav] Ivanovic, [Nemanja] Matic, [Eden] Hazard, they are all playing well", the Portuguese said via his club's site.
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"One of the reasons he’s so important for us is because he can play in any position in midfield. At Barcelona he was playing many times in their style of a number nine or on the left wing, but it depends what you want for the game, what the plan is and where you think he can have more influence.
"I thought he was going to stay at Barcelona, I was looking at him as the natural successor to this generation of players they have who are getting older, like Xavi.
"The surprise for me was not that he didn’t go to Arsenal but that he didn’t stay at Barcelona. We had other faces in mind, players on standby in case we couldn’t get him", Mourinho concluded.
Chelsea paid £26.2m to sign Fabregas from Barcelona, with potentially another £2.3m in add-ons set to also be sent to the Camp Nou.
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