Is Juan Mata Leaving Chelsea This Summer?

It's termed "silly season" for a reason, and rumors of Juan Mata's imminent departure from Stamford Bridge just reinforces that. While football's close season can provide plenty of excitement, news stories generated at this time of year must be taken with a pinch of salt. Sometimes, even that can be too much.

The past few weeks have seen Mata go from Chelsea's Player of the Year—for a second successive time, we might add—to suddenly being at the top of the club's transfer list, as reports in The Mirror, The Guardian and a host of other media outlets suggest he has fallen out with new manager Jose Mourinho, a man who apparently doesn't rate him.

Heck, even this writer stands guilty as charged in stoking the flames when speculating on some Chelsea stars who may be less than awed with Mourinho's Stamford Bridge return, reacting to those very media reports by putting Mata at the top of that list (of which you can read here).

It's sensational stuff, but it's unlikely to happen isn't it? Chelsea fans will hope so and history tells us they have little to fear.

To quote Fernando Torres from an interview with Bleacher Report in May, the Spaniard said "It’s the summer months and all the big clubs are linked with top players[...]Goalkeepers, defenders, midfielders, strikers—the summer comes and the rumors start."

Indeed they do and now it's Mata's time to be centre of attention—however unlikely that seems.

The basis of Mourinho's appeal for some is that the Portuguese brings with him much-coveted box office entertainment. He provides it on the pitch with his teams and in his press conferences, and last season was no different either, as he spectacularly fell out with a host of Real Madrid stars that ultimately led to his departure.

Now he's back at Chelsea, and that box office appeal doesn't come any bigger than him looking to cause a stir by offloading the club's best player.

Since the announcement of Mourinho's return on June 3, speculation has been rife that he will be making wholesale changes at the club. The media has waited with bated breath, playing a game of cat and mouse to see who would blink first. Would Mourinho give us a headline, or would it be written for him?

However, for all the flaws we can pick out in his character, since when has Mourinho been in the business of selling his best players? For that matter, when have Chelsea?

In the Roman Abramovich era, the Blues have made a habit of retaining their most-coveted players. Tales of transfers will inevitably circulate, but they've always maintained the services of the club's prized assets, of which Mata is one.

In fact, the highest profile departures are that of Arjen Robben and Eidur Gudjohnsen (to Real Madrid and Barcelona, respectively), but even then they departed Stamford Bridge on the club's terms and neither were exactly as integral as Chelsea's current No.10.

Wherever he has coached, Mourinho has built his teams around the notion of brains and brawn that many like to philosophize.

In his first spell at Chelsea, there was the endeavor of Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba supported by Robben and Damien Duff on the flanks, and then at Inter Milan it was the creativity of Wesley Sneijder and physicality of Diego Milito that won them the treble, while at Real Madrid Cristiano Ronaldo had license to cause terror with the insurance of Xabi Alonso and Sami Khedira behind him to sweep up.

The system will be tweaked no doubt at Chelsea, but we can expect much of the same. We can expect Mata to be at the heart of it, too.

When Mourinho sat before the world's media at his recent grand unveiling at Stamford Bridge, the first question put to him was whether or not he was still the Special One, suggesting an underwhelming season at the Bernabeu last term had seen him lose a fraction of the spark that has made him so great this past decade.

"I'm the Happy One," he replied with typical vigour, letting us know that somethings may have changed since 2004, but what makes him the manager so many love or hate hasn't.

Mourinho masterminded his own rise to the top, and we can certainly guarantee he's not going to mastermind his own downfall by offloading a player such as Mata. Such self-destruction would be box-office platinum, let alone gold and, believe it or not, even Mourinho cannot deliver on that front.