Jose Mourinho has again insisted that Chelsea will try “until the end” to bring in a striker as the Blues continue to be linked with Wayne Rooney.
The west London club have already had two bids for the 27-year-old Manchester United forward turned down this summer as Mourinho looks to bolster his attacking options before the close of the transfer window.
The latest reports claim that Chelsea are lining up a third and final £40m bid to try and tempt the Red Devils into selling the England international, who was a second-half substitute as United ran out 4-1 winners at Swansea City on Saturday.
And asked about Chelsea’s pursuit of a striker, believed to be Rooney, Mourinho replied: “Nothing’s changed.
“At a certain point, I agree with what [Alan] Pardew was saying yesterday, that the transfer window goes too far – into the third, fourth fixture of the season, which I also agree is too much.
“But at the same time it gives everybody a chance to be in the market while we are winning or losing points.
“We will be [in the market] until the last day. We didn’t spend, we trust a lot in what we did and we trust a lot in our project. Especially the project of the future, where the team is very, very young.
“But we have conditions to try to improve our team, to bring in one more player – and we are going to try [and do] that until the end.”
Asked why he thought United have so far rejected Chelsea’s advances, Mourinho continued: “It’s the same reason why other clubs did the same with our players.
“When you think that you’d like to have one player and the market is open, and the official bids are not forbidden, you try, because nobody forbids you to try.
“And of course, the player’s owners can do exactly what we did in relation to David Luiz and Barcelona. So it’s simple.”
And when quizzed about whether he has any other targets in mind should Chelsea fail to land Rooney, Mourinho added: “We [have a] plan B and C. Don’t ask me names because it’s difficult to speak about players from other clubs.”