• Premier League

Torres 'has a future' at Chelsea

Jose Mourinho says Fernando Torres has "a future at the club", and claimed his comments after the 3-1 defeat to Paris Saint-Germain were not excessively critical.

Mourinho's statements about his forwards after that game attracted a huge amount of attention, and the Chelsea boss proceeded to offer something of a double-sided commentary about Torres on Friday, praising him for "giving everything" but also stating that he demands more goals.

Either way, Chelsea will attempt to solve that issue with the purchase of a high-profile forward this summer, with Atletico Madrid's £32 million-rated Diego Costa said to be the top target. There were reports the club would have to sell Oscar or Eden Hazard to fund such a move but while Mourinho admitted there were new financial constraints at the club, he denied he would have to sell key squad members.

"We do what we can. We don't do what we can't," he said. "We're not going to do it by selling the best players [Oscar and Hazard] ... We want to keep the best players we have and the structure we're trying to build.

"Part of the evolution is based on stability and part is about bringing players in the transfer window like we did in January and what we're going to try and do in the summer. It's evolution based on stability. It's not through selling the best players.

"It's not selling 10 and buying 10 that we're going to reach it. [£30-40m] I think Chelsea can do that on one player. Chelsea can't do that with four or five players and invest £250m. Chelsea can do that with one player. That's the work Chelsea is doing and I think that's possible."

Mourinho was then asked about his "strong words" for Torres and the other forwards, but denied they were overly harsh.

"I don't know which strong words. During [Torres'] period at the club he had moments and some of them important moments. But long periods performing Sunday in Sunday out is not having a lot. Stability in his performances, he is not having a lot.

"But moments of important goals in spite of not scoring at lot during his career at Chelsea. He always had his moments. I believe in these moments until the end of the season. We have six league matches, one Champions League match that can transform to three. I trust that he can have these moments.

"He has a future. If you want to improve, I think everybody wants to improve and obviously Chelsea wants to improve. That's normal. Does he have a future? Yes he has. He has a contract. He's a good professional. He works hard for the team. Obviously, we want him to score more goals. Obviously, he wants to score more goals but he has a future.

"He's a good professional and tries to do his best. I think if people give everything they have, you never can complain. He's a good professional in training and his social life. When he's on the pitch he tries to do his best. We want more but he's the first one that wants more but he's the kind of player that I respect. He deserves to be respected. Nothing more I can say about it."

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