The Spanish media seems to get bored every time an international break rolls around, and this particular break brought us rumors about both Ramires and Thibaut Courtois being targeted by Real Madrid and Barcelona respectively. Jose Mourinho was asked about both today at his presser, and had the following to say about Barcelona's interest in Courtois:
‘In this moment we are in a good situation. I repeat that because we have the best goalkeeper in the world at a stable age.'
‘Van der Sar went from Fulham to United older than Petr and stayed there for a long time, so he is in the best age of his career. And Courtois is undoubtedly the best young goalkeeper in the world with two more years of contract. We are in control of the situation.’
‘Anything that can happen in the future depends on Chelsea. It’s a difficult situation for a club that wants to buy him. ‘It’s a difficult situation for a club that wants him on loan. It’s an easy situation for us. What we’d like? He knows, his family knows, his agent knows. They know what we’d like.’
Both common sense and the general buzz from those around the team hinted that the odds of Chelsea selling Courtois to Barca were slim, but's it's always nice to hear the manager throw a wrench into the storytelling ways of the media from Spain.
Surely though, Mourinho must be itching to send a player that's started basically every match this season to a club he just left, no? When asked repeatedly about the price it would take to pry Ramires away, he responded with the following:
‘No price. There is no price for Ramires in the market. The interest doesn’t annoy me but, on behalf of Chelsea, there’s no price for a club wanting to buy Ramires. If it’s true or not, it’s not important. There’s no price.’
At the end of the season, I'm sure there will be a Chelsea player or two who end up finding a new home, as several players are out of contract while others aren't seeing much time on the pitch. Neither Thibaut Courtois or Ramires fall into those categories though, and it's hard to believe that the manager was being anything but truthful with any of his comments today.
The idea that Chelsea would sell a player that's been basically the first name on the team sheet every week seems ridiculous, and the idea they'd sell one of their best young talents without any sort of pressing need seems almost equally silly. Better luck elsewhere in the search for reinforcements guys, you're not likely to find them here.