• Premier League

Mourinho denies bid for Higuain

Jose Mourinho has denied that Chelsea have made a bid to sign Napoli striker Gonzalo Higuain, and admitted a move would be highly unlikely to happen.

On Friday morning, The Telegraph claimed that an offer of £50 million had been turned down, with Chelsea set to increase that figure in order to bring Higuain to Stamford Bridge.

However, Mourinho says there has been no offer, and a bid will not be made for his former player at Real Madrid.

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"I don't believe they are interested in selling Higuain, so why should we be interested in someone we feel it's impossible to get?" he said.

"He's a player I know we cannot get, because he moved from Real Madrid to Napoli six months ago, he is doing very well and Napoli is not normally a club that sells."

Higuain has scored 14 goals in 21 appearances for Napoli since he moved from Madrid in the summer.

Meanwhile, Mourinho was a little more open on the future of unsettled Kevin De Bruyne, as he said he is happy with Chelsea's squad for this season's objectives, and he also said that Juan Mata is not for sale.

When asked whether he was telling "white lies" as he claimed managers occasionally do regarding transfers, Mourinho was unequivocal. "No. A striker, 100% no.

"It's not a priority, it's not an option. We have three. This squad is good enough for my first season, and for the objectives of the first season and to prepare the next season. So we are happy with the squad we have. If we can improve the squad to prepare the next season, we will do that.

Mourinho also maintained that Mata is more settled after the controversy following his substitution in the 3-0 win over Southampton, and that the player did not visit Mourinho's office to discuss his future.

"No, and today he trained in a fantastic way. So I think he focused more in what I talked after the game at Southampton. When I told I don't want him to leave, he was focused on that and not focused and not when I said the door is always open. When he focused on I don't want him to leave, I don't want the club to sell him, he moved on. He was happy with the victory, so today he trained in a fantastic way. I keep saying that I want him to say."

Mourinho again re-iterated that he would not be willing to sell Mata to another Premier League and said "we have no offers".

That is not the case with De Bruyne, who has been the subject of a number of enquiries, not least from Wolfsburg, Bayer Leverkusen and Malaga.

"I think this is a period for agents to be famous," Mourinho said. "It's that period. It's also good for you, because you have a lot to write, you have a lot of news. Some are true, some are not true. Some agents like to speak when things are done. Some agents like to talk when things are not even started.

"So we know that he fancies a move, but he is a fantastic player, and they are very expensive. So if people think they can get our good players on sale. Sales finished in London yesterday. I don't want him to leave but we have a couple of contacts, made not by us, but made by other clubs. We have a couple of contacts."

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