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Chelsea rejected Di Maria and Falcao before United deals

ESPN staff
January 20, 2015
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Jose Mourinho has revealed he had the opportunity to sign both Angel Di Maria and Falcao for Chelsea but rejected it because their wage demands were too high.

Di Maria and Falcao both joined Manchester United last summer, the former signing from club Real Madrid, where the winger worked under Mourinho, for a British record fee of £59.7m and the latter joining in a big-money loan move from Monaco.

The agent for the two players is Jorge Mendes, who also represents Mourinho, and the Chelsea manager has said he was put off by the mooted salaries, with Falcao reported to be earning around £260,000 a week.

"Jorge told me Di Maria and Falcao are his players and he has to find solutions for them," Mourinho said in the book The Key to Mendes, according to The Sun.

"But if Chelsea doesn't have the financial capacity to pay eight, nine or €10m a year, because of [financial] fair play, of course Mendes has to think about his players.

"We couldn't bring Falcao or Di Maria because I didn't want to, either. I can't have a player earning €10m when others earn three, four or five. That would have caused an explosion."

Mourinho also said he came close to becoming England manager after Steve McClaren was sacked in 2007.

He added: "I just needed to sign [for England]. Everything was prepared. At the moment when I had to sign I said: 'I don't want to.' Now I don't want to change.

"I don't want to join another club. I'm in a situation of great stability."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd
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