Mourinho plans to offload defender

JOSÉ MOURINHO is ready to sell one of his defenders after confirming the capture of Julian Belletti from Barcelona had brought his summer spending to a close.

Belletti arrived from Barca for £4 million (€5.8 million) after Chelsea ended their interest in Sevilla’s Daniel Alves because of the inflated price tag of more than £25m (€36m).

Belletti, 31, goes straight into the squad for today’s home game with Portsmouth. While Mourinho insisted there would be no more new faces, he made clear he was willing to trim his squad further.

Chelsea now have Glen Johnson, Lassana Diarra and Paulo Ferreira as support right-backs to Belletti and it seems certain one of them will leave before the transfer window closes.

The favourite to move on is Arsenal target Diarra. He has already indicated his desire leave and with the success of Mikel John Obi in midfield, Mourinho may be ready to grant his wish.

Mourinho said: “This new player gives me what I need which is a closed door in my dressing room. That is very important for me. The market is open until August 31 but not for us. We have the balance in the squad.

“But I want my squad to be just a little bit smaller. We have 27 players, and if we can, we will go down to 26.

“We have two players for each position and right back is a position where we have more than two.

“If clubs show a real interest in one of our players and our player shows interest in leaving, that is okay.”

Mourinho would not indicate which of the right-backs he was prepared to let go but it is unlikely to be Ferreira.

Mourinho added: “Paulo is a player that I trust very much. From the defensive point of view he’s a safe player.

“Belletti brings what we believe we need, a pure right-back, not an adaptation like we did so many times with Diarra, Michael Essien and Shaun Wright-Phillips in that position.

“So we have an attacking right-back and not an ordinary one. He has played in two of the biggest teams in the world — Brazil and Barcelona.”

Belletti enjoyed World Cup success with Brazil and scored in the Champions League final win against Arsenal in 2006.

The Brazilian paid tribute to Mourinho and set his sights on Champions League success with his new club.

Belletti said: “Everybody knows Mr Mourinho is one of the best coaches in the world. I am sure Chelsea will only be successful under his direction.

“The philosophy is to win every competition we are in so I hope we can win that one. Why not?”