“I only need two players” – How Jose Mourinho bagged Cesc Fabregas for successful title charge

Nobody expected former Arsenal youth player Cesc Fabregas to come to Chelsea, and when he did it took Jose Mourinho’s team to the next level.

Fabregas has been speaking in an interview quoted by Goal.com, where he explains how that fateful move in the summer of 2014 took place.

It turns out, as one might expect, that it was all part of Jose Mourinho’s scheme to win the title back off Man City – something he managed once Cesc was in the side.

“One day, when I first met him he told me ‘I need two players, I’m going to sign Diego Costa. If you come to me…’, he drew me the team on paper and said ‘this team is winning the title’.

“The first day I met him he said ‘I only need two players: Diego, who is basically signed’ and then Thibaut Courtois was coming but if not it was Petr Cech. It’s basically the same. But he said: ‘you come, we will win the title’.”

It sounds just like Mourinho, the methodical but also bombastic style.

He wasn’t wrong either. The previous year the team had come close to winning the league, but fallen short with Mourinho in his first season back at the club.

Once he had had a season to assess his options, Mourinho identified his weak points – he needed an experienced creative midfielder (Fabregas) a better striker (Costa) and a competitor for Cech.

With its weak points shored up, the team relatively cruised to the title that year, and played some brilliant stuff along the way. Fabregas and Costa in particular were excellent, and the fact that the former got an assist and the latter a goal in the first game of the season against Burnley that year showed that Mourinho had got his summer spot on.

Chelsea News