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Mourinho: Courtois will be coming back

Thibaut Courtois is in his third season on loan at Atletico Madrid © Getty Images

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Jose Mourinho insists that goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois will be returning to Chelsea, and ruled out a swap deal with Atletico Madrid for Diego Costa - but did not deny interest in the striker.

Courtois is currently in his third season on loan at Atletico, and Spanish press reported on Tuesday that a deal had been struck between the clubs for an exchange. Mourinho did confirm on Friday that Chelsea would seek to sign a 30-goal-a-season forward of a mid-20s age profile - and Costa exactly fits that bracket. Mourinho did, however, refuse to comment on the forward.

"Courtois is our player. Diego is not our player. So, again, I cannot speak about Diego Costa. About Courtois, I can. He's my player."

When specifically asked whether Courtois would stay permanently at Atletico, Mourinho said "no, no".

Meanwhile, Mourinho insisted Chelsea would not be purchasing any more players this January - unless they sell again.

"Unless an incredible surprising deal happens with one of our players, and because of that we have to react and make something to complete the squad... but I don't believe so. No strikers, no," he said.

Mourinho did not discount the possibility of Samuel Eto'o signing a new contract either. The striker can leave in the summer, and Mourinho was open to the idea.

"Again, it's not a similar situation to the boys with history in Chelsea, so we cannot compare his situation with Frank [Lampard], Ashley [Cole]... he's a different situation," he said.

"But we can compare in the sense he's very comfortable, and so are we... he feels very free and very comfortable making decisions just for himself. He decided to come here to the Premier League to Chelsea, so Samuel is enjoying his career until the end.

"We'll see what he wants to do at the end of the season. Maybe he wants to go to Majorca, as he promised his son. Maybe he wants to stay with us, or go and finish his career at Inter [Milan]. He doesn't need titles, he doesn't need money. He's a big player, even if he doesn't score 25 goals, because his contribution to the team is very high. We are happy."

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