The west London club have made a u-turn on the Spaniard’s future.
In a turn of events Chelsea have now decided to block any transfer attempts from Paris Saint-Germain to sign out-of-favour midfielder Juan Mata, according to Italian journalist Tancredi Palmeri.
In an unexpected twist, Chelsea turned down PSG move for Mata.Not clear if a Mourinho or club decision.A month ago attitude was opposite
— Tancredi Palmeri (@tancredipalmeri) December 24, 2013
This is a complete change of heart from manager Jose Mourinho and suggests that the 50-year-old may be warming to the Spain international.
Mata has been widely believed to be the Blues best player over the past two seasons, but when Mourinho returned to take charge of the club in the summer the 25-year-old was sidelined.
The Portuguese coach revealed that Oscar was the preferred choice in the No.10 role behind the striker – the previous position of the Spaniard – and the attacking midfielder was left out on numerous occasions.
“Oscar is my No 10 and, if somebody tells me that Oscar is not Chelsea’s best player since the beginning of the season, I would have to disagree,” Mourinho was quoted by the Daily Mail back in September.
“The reasons why he’s [Mata] not playing so much are things I can speak about with him but not with you.
“I want Oscar as my No 10 and I want the other two players from the sides to adapt to that and learn how to do things they were not ready to do before.”
These developments incurred a torrent of interest from some of Europe’s elite, with PSG seemingly the most likely side to snap up the midfield ace, with reports from the Daily Star declaring this move as recently as Sunday.
Yet whilst Mourinho was open to cashing in on Mata just a few weeks ago, the former Real Madrid boss has changed tact and is perhaps starting to see the potential in the player that the rest of the footballing world has seemingly known for a long time.
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