Mourinho: 'Five defenders is not enough' but the market is out of control

Since we have decided to stop talking directly about our transfer targets like John Stones, we've moved on to speaking about them (and to them?) indirectly.

"We cannot go to the Premier League with five defenders - that's our weakness. At this moment we have five: four to play and one on the bench. In this moment it's not a priority but in three days, if we lose one, it becomes a priority. Five is not enough. That's obvious."

-Jose Mourinho; source: Guardian

According to José, we do have time to "organize" this area of the team, and so we're certainly not going to pay over the odds for any reinforcements.

"I have people in mind but I know that the market sometimes has no rules. We, as Chelsea, we make our own rules. To make our own rules is to evaluate the players and to know the player's value, and to know when we have to stop and turn to another side, and thinking of another option."

-Jose Mourinho; source: Guardian

Perhaps there is hope after all that we won't spend entirely outrageous amounts on John Stones.  Perhaps we'll only spend a mildly outrageous amount.  Are you listening, Mr. Stones?  If you want to join, you'll have to start working from the inside as well!

Meanwhile, Mourinho also confirmed that a player from the U21 side will make the step up to be the eighth defender in the squad.  He brought up Ola Aina as an example, so chances are it will be the versatile 18-year-old who gets that honor.

@DominikDekarz Probably, he's older and more versatile than Clarke-Salter right now.

— Chelsea Youth (@chelseayouth) August 1, 2015