Chelsea FC: ‘We Don’t Sell Garbage’ – Jose Mourinho

Jose Mourinho claimed that Chelsea does not “sell garbage,” ahead of his side’s clash against Everton, who will feature Romelu Lukaku – a former Blue, on Thursday (AEST) in the Premier League.

Chelsea have made huge profits – which could exceed £150million - in selling top quality players like Andre Schurrle, Juan Mata, Kevin de Bruyne, David Luiz, and Lukaku himself, dating back to January 2014. And when prompted with a question as to how the west London outfit were able to demand and obtain such huge sums from interested clubs, his answer was simple.

“Because they are good,” said the Portuguese.

"We don't sell garbage. We sell top players.”

"Mata: world champion. Schurrle: world champion. Lukaku: one of the best young strikers, fantastic prospect. De Bruyne: one of the best young players also. Both [are] playing for a very important national team, probably one of the best national teams for the next decade.”

“We sell top players and we get top fees. If we didn't get top fees, we wouldn't sell them because we want to keep them."

Lukaku, an Andres Villas-Boas signing, will be facing his former club after just making 10 top-flight appearances over his four-year loan-ridden tenure at Stamford Bridge, but Mourinho doesn’t think that the Belgian international will need to prove a point to his former employers and manager.

"No. I think he proves every weekend that he's a good player," he said.

"Nobody has doubts at Chelsea that he's a good player. He has nothing to prove to us. We know he's a good player.”

"We know Schurrle is a good player. De Bruyne is a good player. Mata is a good player. But that's football, that's life, that's the market. The players' wishes sometimes [are] to be in clubs where they become clearly the first options -- that's football, that's life.”

"It's done. It's done. The important thing is if he's [Lukaku] happy. If he is, that's good. From what I know of him, the couple of months we worked together, I think he's happy now. He wanted to play all the time. So I think he has to be a happy kid."

The Blues are on top of the domestic league table tallying 56 points, 7 points clear off second-place Manchester City, with both clubs still having a game in hand. Mourinho will be confronted with having to formulate the right combination, with his squad almost reaching optimum health.

"Injured, we have only Mikel with a little problem in his knee, but he's the only one that's not in condition to play tomorrow," he added.

"After that we have a couple of little things we have to control until tomorrow, but normally not a problem.”

Meanwhile, it remains to be seen whether the “Special One” will be giving winter signing Juan Cuadrado the green light to start after having been fielded in as a late substitute against Aston Villa on Saturday.

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To contact author of this article, email m.eubank@ibtimes.com.au.