Chelsea turned down both di Maria and Falcao last summer, says Mourinho

Let's talk potential transfers. No, not this winter's potential transfers -- why would we talk about those? -- last summer's. When, as it turns out, we were offered both Angel di Maria and Radamel Falcao by super-agent Jorge Mendes. Here's Jose on why that didn't happen:

Jorge told me Di Maria and Falcao are his players and he has to find solutions for them. But if Chelsea doesn't have the financial capacity to pay eight, nine or ten million euros a year, because of [financial] fair play, of course Mendes has to think about his players.

We couldn't bring Falcao or Di Maria because I didn't want to, either. I can't have a player earning £10 million when others earn three, four or five. That would have caused an explosion.

-Source: ESPN.

While I love di Maria as much as the next person (barring Louis van Gaal, who mostly seems to want him to suffer), boy am I glad we stayed away from those transfers. Spending that much money on any single player, no matter how good they are, would have been a financial disaster, better left to the clubs that are panicking. Chelsea had a transfer strategy that was measured and intelligent, and the splashes made were big enough to secure our current happy place in the title race.

I'm not averse to big-name spending, of course. But affordable, smart big-name spending done with a plan in mind is the way to build a team that wins now and lasts a long time in the process.