• Premier League

Mourinho: Shaw would have killed Chelsea

Jose Mourinho claims he turned down the chance to sign Luke Shaw because his wage demands were financially irresponsible and would have disrupted the harmony within his Chelsea squad.

Shaw, a boyhood Chelsea fan, became the most expensive full-back in history when Manchester United bought him from Southampton for an initial £27 million earlier this month.

Luke Shaw impressed on his Manchester United debut in the 7-0 win over the LA Galaxy © Getty Images

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Yet Mourinho says he is concerned by Shaw's reported £100,000-a-week wage packet, arguing that paying such a sum, for a player who only made his Premier League debut in November 2012, would have destroyed the spirit in the Stamford Bridge dressing room.

"If we pay to a 19-year-old boy what we were being asked for, to sign Luke Shaw, we are dead," Mourinho told reporters at Chelsea's pre-season training camp in Austria. "We would have killed our stability with financial fair play and killed the stability in our dressing room.

"Because when you pay that much to a 19-year-old kid - a good player, fantastic player - but when you pay that amount of money, the next day, we would have had players knocking on our door.

"They would have been saying, 'How is it possible I play 200 games for this club, won this and that, yet a 19-year-old comes here and gets more money than I get?'"

Chelsea instead opted for Brazilian left-back Filipe Luis from Atletico Madrid, who Mourinho said was a more sensible choice considering UEFA's financial fair play regulations.

"It would've killed immediately our balance and we couldn't allow that," Mourinho added. "I don't criticise another club for paying it. They can pay what they want. I don't have any comment about it.

"But for my club we can say it would be very negative for us, especially when we can say Filipe is much less expensive. Sometimes you have to make decisions."

United manager Louis van Gaal has refused to enter a public war of words, saying that he will discuss the matter with Mourinho - a former protege of his at Barcelona - in private.

"I don't have to answer, I don't think I have to discuss things with the media. It's better to discuss it with Jose," Van Gaal told reporters after United's evening training session at Denver's Sports Authority Field.

Shaw impressed on his United debut, in the 7-0 thrashing of the LA Galaxy, and is set to feature in Saturday's match against Roma as the club's pre-season tour of America continues.

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