Jose delight with Wright
by Paul Higham - created on 17 Jul 2005
Jose Mourinho is delighted with the impending arrival of Shaun Wright-Phillips at Chelsea, and is still hoping to add Michael Essien to his star-studded squad.
Chelsea strolled to the Premiership title last season but Mourinho is still eager to build on his squad, and made Manchester City star Wright-Phillips a top target.
City have reluctantly agreed a fee with The Blues after the player asked for permission to speak to the West London outfit.
Mourinho is confident Wright-Phillips will sign and says he will add extra competition for places on the wing - adding to his already formidable line-up of Arjen Robben, Damien Duff and Joe Cole.
The Portuguese coach was with his side in Lisbon for a pre-season friendly, but was delighted to be adding another great young talent to his squad.
" He is one of the best players in England," Mourinho told Sky Sports News.
" He is young and he has space for development and he has the qualities that everyone is looking for in a modern footballer, he is quick, he is intelligent, he is creative, he can break by himself and shape the balance of the team.
" With him Joe Cole, Arjen Robben, and Damien Duff we have a fantastic group of wingers to compete to give us the best every other match and with him we will not have the kind of problems like we had last season when Robben was injured and Duff was injured.
" This season with the World Cup in the summer, there will be a lot of friendlies for national teams, and with five competitions we need this balance we have it in every other position, and we didn´t have this balance without him so we got him and I am very happy."
Mourinho does not want to stop at adding Wright-Phillips to his squad, saying there is one more space left in midfield - a space being earmarked for Michael Essien.
Lyon are desperate to keep the powerful African, but Roman Abramovich´s billions may again make the difference in clinching another big-name signing.
" There is one more possibility, we have still a space in midfield, Smertin went to Charlton, Scotty to Newcastle, we brought in just young Diarra for the midfield.
" It is an area where we don´t have problems, we are not in trouble but we still have a space so during the open market if we have a chance to get a good player, then that would be good.
" If the club ( Lyon) decides not to sell, it is something we have to respect - it is public the player wants to come to Chelsea, but they control their destiny we cannot - so if before the market closes they decide they want to sell we are there waiting but we cannot do anything."
source : skysports
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