Mourinho set for clearout of Chelsea strikers

Jose Mourinho has made it clear bringing in a new striker will be his top priority in the summer after watching his Chelsea side slump to a shock defeat at Crystal Palace.

Chelsea’s title hopes suffered a massive setback on Saturday when they were beaten by strugglers Crystal Palace, 24 hours before Liverpool moved to the top of the table with a 4-0 win against Tottenham.

The future of Chelsea’s forwards has been a hot topic for some time with Demba Ba and Fernando Torres both linked with summer moves away from Stamford Bridge, while Samuel Eto’o's one-year contract is due to expire at the end of the season.


Given his forward’s failures in front of goal, Mourinho has intimated that he will be looking to bring in new strikers during the summer transfer window.

“It is clear to everybody that Chelsea next year want to bring a striker. What’s the future for the others? The ones who are staying are competing with the striker we are bringing in,” Mourinho said.

“It is normal at the end of the season if players who are not playing a lot or players who are not happy and prefer a change will go. That is also part of the market. We want to improve the team and the players and make some surgical movements in the transfer window. It is also clear we want to improve our players.

“I can’t and I don’t need to improve [Ivan] Ivanovic, [Gary] Cahill or [John] Terry, but there are others I need to improve. We are doing that step by step. But that’s not enough to be champions.”