Jose Mourinho has admitted for the first time that Romelu Lukaku and Thibaut Courtois could be sold to help Chelsea comply with Uefa’s rules over Financial Fair Play.
Chelsea are now prepared to sell players in order to buy in the transfer market as they showed last month when Juan Mata and Kevin de Bruyne left for £55million and Nemanja Matic, Mohamed Salah and Kurt Zouma arrived for £44.5m.
Courtois and Lukaku, who are on loan at Atletico Madrid and Everton respectively, are two of 27 players who are plying their trade elsewhere in order to get first-team experience.
Both Belgium internationals want reassurances over their roles before committing to a return to Stamford Bridge next season.
But Mourinho hinted they, along with other youngsters, may not get their wish and said: “Chelsea made great investment in the past and in some moments were also a bit criticised because we did so much. But things change.
“Chelsea adapted well to the situation. When you see De Bruyne, who played three or four matches, give us a big profit, there are other players who maybe don’t play a single match for Chelsea and we will look to sell them at a profit. We have had to organise ourselves in a different way. Before me, Chelsea did fantastic work in this level: Lukaku, De Bruyne, Courtois, young [Thorgan] Hazard and [Lucas] Piazon.
“Not all of them will have a career at Chelsea but all of them are important in this new financial organisation. So Chelsea worked very well and probably started doing that before other clubs.
“Because of that, even if FFP comes into practice, I think Chelsea are very advanced.”
The Blues take on Manchester City in the FA Cup fifth round tomorrow having already done the double over them in the League.
But Mourinho said: “We have beaten them twice but that makes it even more difficult to beat them again. And if people were saying that the last time we did it there was no Fernandinho and Sergio Aguero, the first time we beat them they were playing.”
Defender David Luiz is relieved Brazil team-mate Fernandinho is still ruled out with a thigh injury.
He said: “It’s a big loss [for them]. It’s good he can’t play against us because he is a fantastic player.”
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