Chelsea Transfer News: Jose Mourinho Comments on Yoshinori Muto Rumours

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho insisted on Friday, in the light of recent links with Japan striker Yoshinori Muto, that no player would ever be brought into the west London club for purely commercial reasons.

The Blues have been linked with a summer move for the FC Tokyo star, with BBC Sport reporting a bid has been made.

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Speculation has been rife that Chelsea's move for the 22-year-old Muto is heavily linked with the Blues' recent £200 million shirt-sponsorship deal with Japanese tyre company Yokohama Rubber, per Owen Gibson of The Guardian, as well as a mooted summer tour to Japan. 

However, Mourinho insisted when challenged on the subject on Friday that no player would ever be brought to Chelsea if they weren't good enough, while conceding that commercial influences do play a part in transfers, per the Evening Standard's Simon Johnson:

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That's modern football, that's modern management. There is something that in modern management, you can't completely close the door to a little bit of commercial interest. At the same time, a football club is always a football club. And a top football club only has space for very good players or at least very good prospects. So no, we would never bring a player if the player has no capacity to be in the Chelsea squad. [...]

The only thing I can say is that modern football is a business, an industry. You have to think about the financial situation, especially at a club like Chelsea, who always want to be under the rules of Fair Play. But we are a football club. We want to win matches and trophies. We don't get players unless we believe the player is a good one or a good prospect. That's for sure.

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The Portuguese manager said he knew "a little" about Muto, per Johnson, and FC Tokyo chief Naoki Ogane has said that a bid has come in for the youngster from Chelsea, reported to be worth around £4 million, per Sports Nippon (via Sam Lee of Goal.com): "It is true that Chelsea sent us an offer for Muto. It is a formal offer with conditions. They want to acquire him in the summer."

Muto already has 11 caps for the Japanese national side, and he appeared at January's 2015 Asian Cup.

He has scored 16 goals in 37 games for his club, including three in four in the early stages of the current J-League season, per Squawka.

Muto is certainly a fine prospect, and he would indeed be a huge signing for Chelsea commercially, but Squawka question whether Chelsea even need to bring in a new frontman in the summer:

Mourinho recently suggested that Chelsea's transfer policy in the summer would be "nice and quiet," per the Daily Mirror's Alex Richards, but along with the Muto link, a huge move for Real Madrid's Gareth Bale has also been suggested, per The Independent, as discussed by B/R UK's Garry Hayes:

Such a move would definitively eclipse the potential Muto signing, but it will be fascinating to see how the Japanese youngster fares if he makes the switch to Stamford Bridge.

Japanese players have rarely lit up the Premier League—see Shinji Kagawa's stint at Manchester United, for example—but perhaps Muto could buck that trend.

Whether he will get the opportunity or not remains to be seen, but if Mourinho is to be believed, the Blues certainly will not sign him unless they believe he can contribute to the squad.