Chelsea transfers: Jose Mourinho rules out bid for Gonzalo Higuaín

Jose Mourinho has ruled out the possibility of Chelsea making a bid for Gonzalo Higuaín in the January transfer window.

The Blues were reported to have tabled a £50m offer for the Napoli striker on Friday morning.

The market is open but for us it’s almost closed

Jose Mourinho

However, Mourinho, who worked with Higuaín during his three-year spell in charge of Real Madrid, insists that he is not interested in signing the 26-year-old.

“No. He’s a player that I know I cannot get,” said Mourinho when asked if Chelsea have made an offer for Higuaín.

“He’s a player that moved from Real to Napoli six months ago. He’s doing very well, he’s adapting very well to Italy.

“Napoli is club that normally doesn’t sell. In the last years they sold one player per year and [even] when they were feeling it was not possible to keep [Ezequiel] Lavezzi and [Edinson] Cavani, they don’t sell.

“They want to win the Scudetto, they want to win the Europa League. I don’t believe they are interested in selling Higuaín, so why should we be interested in somebody that we feel is impossible to [sign]? Nothing is true about Gonzalo.”

Mourinho also insisted that he is not on the lookout to sign a new striker during the mid-season window.

“[Signing a striker] is not a priority, it’s not an option. We have three. A striker, 100 per cent no,” he said.

The 50-year-old continued: “This squad is good enough for my first season, for the objectives of the first season and to prepare for the next season. We are happy with the squad we have.

“If we can improve the squad to prepare for the next season, we will.

“We know what we need for the future. We are preparing for the future but competing in the present. We are favourites for nothing, we just want to be favourites for the next game.

“As I was saying at Southampton, the market is open but for us it’s almost closed.”

Mourinho, whose side take on Derby County in the third round of the FA Cup on Sunday, also insisted that he feels he has the support and trust of most Chelsea fans.

“I think the fans had an enjoyable decade,” he continued.

“They enjoy the team that they had for the past 10 years which was basically a team with a spine of the same players. During that decade they had ups and downs but lots of ups and good moments.

“I think they trust me. They know we are building another team for another period of seven or eight years.

“They know our nature doesn’t stop us fighting for titles but they also know that we are preparing a team for the future.”