Chelsea transfer plans: the latest on Pedro, Salah, Filipe Luis

With Chelsea preseason in full swing and the first friendly coming up in a few days, Jose Mourinho and his gift of oratory has finally made an appearance in front of the media, bearing all his usual gifts and even some golden transfer nuggets.

We've covered the confirmed bids in Everton's Jon Stones already, but Chelsea were rumored to be in for Barcelona's Pedro as well.  Turns out, just as we had surmised ourselves, with a full complement of wingers and attacking midfielders already in the squad, we are not buying anyone else for that position.  For now.

"I have five wingers, if I lose one maybe I am interested in another but at this moment I have balance and quality and numbers."

And no, Mohamed Salah does not count as one of the five.

"I see his future elsewhere. Either on loan or sold with an offer we are happy to accept. We have five wingers and it is better not to have Salah back."

Another player who's been rumored to be leaving is Filipe Luis.  Mourinho certainly did not rule out that possibility.

"If they want him back they have to pay, they have to pay and then we have to react and go to the market to keep our balance."

We would have to move pretty quickly to secure a replacement signing should Filipe Luis return to Atlético Madrid, but the only full back with whom we've been linked with any degree of seriousness is Augsburg's Baba Rahman.  On the plus side, this could provide a bit of excitement for the second half of the transfer window.  Otherwise, it looks like we'll be sitting tight, which has been Mourinho's stated intention from the very beginning.

"I am looking for a defender to finish this balance in our squad and after that we are ready to answer anything that can happen to our players."

"If one of our players in a specific position wants to leave, we agree a deal for a player to leave and we have to answer immediately and bring in somebody else, because at the moment we have balance in the squad and we cannot lose that."

"It's a big challenge for us to go through the season with basically the same team and squad from last season."

(Well, why not make it a bit easier then?)