Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho has refused to be drawn into reports that Chelsea beat Manchester United to the penmanship of former Barcelona forward Pedro.
The Blues completed a £21m signing of the Spaniard from the La Liga champions on Thursday, after the 28-year-old had been mentioned as a transfer target for Premier League rivals United for most of the summer.
United executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward was in Barcelona earlier in the week, but failed to wrap up a deal for Pedro.
“I only want to beat Man United on the pitch,” said the 53-year-old. “I don’t want to go in that direction. Our job is not to get a player another club wants.
“I don’t want to say we won, Man United lost – that’s not the point. It’s a moment for Pedro to enjoy a different step.”
Mourinho however expressed delight about having Baba Rahman in his squad, with the Ghanaian left-back’s signing from Augsburg also in the week. The manager; however, “does not know if the new players are available for Sunday (away to West Brom) or not,” but believes the “opportunity window has helped him strengthen his squad.
“New players are always welcome so obviously I’m happy both of them have come to us,” he said. “I know the Premier League doesn’t start tomorrow, it started two weeks ago, but people call it the transfer window and I sometimes call it the opportunity window. While the window is open there is always an opportunity.
“It’s dangerous because every team can lose players at a moment when nobody wants to, but at the same time it’s an opportunity to get players until the last moment and this week we got a very good, young left-back that we needed, with potential we believe can be developed, and we got one of the best attacking players in the world, a player with lots of experience and with something I really like very much, which is the desire to leave a giant club, one of the best clubs in the world, a club that normally players don’t want to leave.
“For a player like him, who is loved by the club and who loves the club, he wanted to leave because he wants something more for his career. That’s evidence of his ambition.”
Chelsea ‘not happy but calm’
The champions have managed just a point from their first two matches but Mourinho says his players’ reaction in training has been “better than ever.”
A trip to the Midlands is significant for the Portuguese boss not because he has never beaten West Brom manager Tony Pulis, but because they “have to improve.”
And in the words of the manager, “We (Chelsea) need to be unhappy because that feeling makes you work, but to be calm is important.”
Mourinho has been beaten six times on the troth in the league by managers whose surname begins with ‘P’. Asked about the statistic, he replied: “If I was superstitious I’d say that when I start the season 2-2 I go on to win the treble.
“It was 2-2 Porto v Belenses, 2-2 Inter v Bari and 2-2 v Swansea this season.”
