Juan Mata squashes the Spanish media's dream that he and Chelsea are about to part ways

Chelsea have a problem, at least according to the Spanish press. Since they hired Jose Mourinho, the only types of players they can possibly be associated with are thugs that ruin football, and are desperate to get rid of anyone who won't conform to such an approach that destroys the game we all love.

Juan Mata is Spanish, and everyone in the Spanish press knows that no Spanish player would willingly play anti-football...right? Therefore, Juan Mata must be for sale. Being Spanish and very good, the only two logical destinations for Mata would be Barcelona and Real Madrid. Thus, they need to constantly pump out stories pushing this angle to their readers, even if there's nothing there worth writing about.

AS caught up with Mata yesterday, and tried to get some quotes out of him to stir up more trouble. After starting with a few questions about the Confederations Cup, and then eased into a few questions about his club life. Sneaky, and not at all unexpected:

Del Bosque and Mourinho have two very different styles, how do you see them?

For now I am focusing here on winning the tournament. To value people have to know them. After resting vacation and get to meet the new coach and I am sure that things will go well.

Where did the news that Chelsea want to sell you come from?

I do not know. Mourinho will want to see everyone and assess them. The club handed me confidence and I said it was a very important player the last time I spoke with them.

Mata wasn't giving them the sort of controversial comments they were after, so the Spanish paper moved on for a bit. If at first you don't succeed though...

Will you return to Madrid someday?

I do not know, do not know.

Is your desire to return again?

For Real Madrid I have only good words. I grew up there for four years as a player and person. I have many friends there and I'm very grateful, that's the truth, and keep in touch with people. But I've been so happy for two years in London that all I think about now is to continue enjoying that league and I love that city.

Again, Mata said absolutely nothing that would stir up the pot or make us think either he or the club are interested in parting ways. I'm sure that won't stop the stories though, as the Spanish press seems to feel like causing even more trouble than usual where Jose Mourinho's new club is concerned.

At this point it seems pretty clear to me that Chelsea have little to no interest in parting ways with either Juan Mata or David Luiz, and neither do their fans. I'd have to assume that this is why we keep seeing these stories forced on us, as they almost certainly have an agenda here*. Oddly, stories like Fernando Torres to Barca that seem to meet with more favorable reactions from London and the fanbase seem to disappear almost as soon as they pop up, as if they never existed at all.

*Yesterday's garbage report that the Spanish government is planning on (definitely) (probably) (maybe someday) (probably not) investigating Jose Mourinho's taxes seems like another example of this sort of utter crap from the Catalan media that's trying to make the man that chose England over Spain realize how awful that choice truly was

It always makes sense to take news during silly season with a big grain of salt, but in the case of Chelsea and anything coming out of Spain this summer, I'd be even more skeptical than usual. The Spanish press has unfinished business with Jose Mourinho, so I'd expect to to keep reading garbage meant to unsettle him. Yay.