Jose Mourinho has maintained his tit-for-tat with Manuel Pellegrini by suggesting the Manchester City manager is in need of a calculator for asserting that Chelsea remain comparable heavyweights in the transfer market, with the Portuguese offering an insight into how his club intend to comply with Uefa’s financial fair-play rules.

Pellegrini said last week that Chelsea are “the team that spends the most money in the last 10 years, the team that spends the most money this year, so a little bit rich” in the wake of their 1-0 victory at the Etihad Stadium last week. Yet Mourinho pointed to Chelsea’s net profit during the mid-winter transfer window as evidence of a desire to comply with the new guidelines – he remains sceptical rivals, and City in particular, will follow suit – and revealed he was not in the market for top players such as Radamel Falcao or Edinson Cavani.

Indeed, while conceding the days of spending record fees, have gone, Mourinho believes Chelsea's stockpiling of young talent over recent seasons has offered them leeway within FFP. Asked about Cavani and Falcao, about whom the Premier League leaders inquired last summer before their lucrative moves to Monaco and Paris St Germain respectively, he said: "No, we didn't go for them because of transfer fees and salaries. Players are not just about fees, but also big wages. Of course there's a certain profile of player we don't go near."

Compete for honours
Mourinho said Chelsea could still compete for honours within FFP having already recruited potential which, as it was with Kevin de Bruyne in January, could then be sold on at substantial profit. The Belgium forward had been bought for €8 million and despite making only two Premier League starts in two years contracted to the club, moved on to Wolfsburg last month for €22 million. The likes of Romelu Lukaku and Thibaut Courtois, the young goalkeeper who has spent the last two seasons at Atletico Madrid and whose contract runs to 2016, have clearly seen their values soar while away from the club that owns them.

“Chelsea made great investment in the past, and were also criticised because we did so much . . . ” said Mourinho. “The club adapted well to the situation. You see De Bruyne gave us a big profit, and there are other players who . . . won’t play a single match for Chelsea and we sell them at a profit . . . not all of them will have a career at Chelsea, but all of them are important in this new financial organisation.”

Chelsea have 30 players on loan at clubs around Europe, youngsters who will either go on to make their mark back at their parent club or whose future sales will help the current Premier League leaders comply with Uefa’s regulations.

Big spenders
Mourinho, who has Torres back in the squad for tonight's

match at West Bromwich Albion but again will be without John Terry, denied Pellegrini’s assertion that Chelsea and City remain comparable spenders in the market, suggesting the Chilean was employing mind games. “The message he wanted to pass out is that we are also big spenders like them, but that’s not true,” said Mourinho, whose figures did not include the €14.5 million arrival of Kurt Zouma from St Etienne.

“When someone says Chelsea bought Nemanja Matic and Mohamed Salah, you have to say they sold Juan Mata and De Bruyne, and had a profit of £23 million. So instead of saying we’re the big spenders in the January market, it’s probably better to say we are the ones who made the most money.

"Pellegrini is a fantastic coach and, on top of that, he's an engineer by qualification. I don't think an engineer needs a calculator to do Mata £37 million and De Bruyne £18 million, so that's £55 million. Matic is £21 million and Salah is £11 million. That's £32 million, and 55 minus 32 is 23. So Chelsea, in this transfer window, generated £23 million. It's easy to understand that this is working with fair financial fair play . . . We don't need a calculator for this. It's easy: +23."
Guardian Service