Chelsea withdraw from Juve cull Saturday 22 July, 2006
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Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho says his club have no plans on raiding Juventus for the few talented players left at the club.
The likes of Emerson, Fabio Cannavaro, Gianluca Zambrotta and Lilian Thuram have already been sold, with Patrick Vieira and Zlatan Ibrahimovic set to follow.
But while the likes of Real Madrid and Barcelona have eagerly swooped, the London club are not attempting to benefit from the Italian outfit’s demotion to Serie B.
"We started thinking about transfers for the new season before the last one ended. For example we contacted Bayern Munich about Michael Ballack last term," Mourinho stated.
"The market was waiting for the problems in Italian football. Chelsea didn't and I'm happy with that because it shows we are working at the right time and also shows respect for difficult times.
"I would be very sad to bring to Chelsea players from a club in difficult circumstances. When I look at a big, big club like Juventus with players wanting to go, I don't laugh at the situation.”
However, Football Italia understands that Chelsea did make a bid for Zambrotta last week before he left for Barca.
It’s alleged that they made a £13m offer for the full-back, but that was rejected as Juventus insisted he would only be sold in partnership with Thuram – so that Juve could rid themselves of his wages too.
The latter, at 34 years of age, was deemed as surplus to requirements by Mourinho and the pair thus quickly moved to Spain instead.