Lukaku and De Bruyne 'ready', says Mourinho

We've heard from various sources that Chelsea are expecting both Romelu Lukaku and Kevin de Bruyne back at Stamford Bridge next season. Now we have something straight from Jose Mourinho's mouth:

First of all I want to meet [Lukaku and De Bruyne]. I think it is fair that the players are the first ones to know about their future.

But I can say that Chelsea invested a lot in them in the past and it is my job to try to extract the best from that investment. Both of them are ready to come and be part of our squad.

-Source: Sky Sports/everywhere because of a big Jose presser

That's not quite the same as 'they're definitely coming back', which was the impression that we got earlier in the week, but it sounds like that's the general shape of the plan anyway. It just won't be announced officially until they're all able to meet up in person, which, barring Mourinho flying around to catch them individually, will probably happen at the beginning of next month.

At the very least, this will completely torpedo the idea that either isn't part of Chelsea's long-term plans. Granted, that was a silly idea in the first place considering the time and money that's been invested in both coupled with how good they are, but criticising the club's planning's never really been about thinking one's complaints through sensibly, has it?

If Mourinho thinks that Lukaku and de Bruyne are ready to contribute, we can probably expect to see rather a lot of them next year. Exciting times ahead.