Is He Right? Mourinho Raised £141M By Selling 5 Players He Didn't Want In His Chelsea Team

Chelsea have brought in a staggering £141m from transfers in the last 12 months from players who were not in Jose Mourinho's plans at Stamford Bridge. The Chelsea boss is somehow able to extract huge sums for players he does not even want. Since he returned to Stamford Bridge, he has sold (from left to right)
Romelu Lukaku, David Luiz, Juan Mata, Demba Ba and Kevin De Bruyne.

Kevin De Bruyne started just two Premier League games for Chelsea following a £6.7m move from Genk, but was sold in January to Wolfsburg for a staggering £18m. While Manchester United broke their transfer record to sign Juan Mata that same month for £37m. He had only started 11 league games under Mourinho, one Champions League tie and two matches in the Capital One Cup.

Demba Ba moved to Besiktas for £8m this summer – a profit of £1m from the fee paid to Newcastle despite being 29 years old and with only 23 starts in all competitions in 18 months.

In June Paris Saint-Germain handed over an astonishing £50m for David Luiz, a player Mourinho had reservations about from day one and was behind John Terry and Gary Cahill in the pecking order for centre-backs. It is a world-record fee for a defender. And now Everton have set a new transfer record fee in capturing Romelu Lukaku for £28m.

Across the five deals Chelsea made a total profit in the region of £60m. A phenomenal amount even for Chelsea - because Financial Fair Play rules should begin to bite and the fact these were players no longer desired.
Quite how the club, and Mourinho as its architect, have been able to pull it all off is a question many of the game’s executives would like to know.