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Chelsea will not move for Defoe

Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho has pledged not to move for Tottenham star Jermain Defoe in the January transfer window.


 

Mourinho had been linked with a £15m bid for Defoe, 22, but he has reassured Spurs that will not be happening.

"It is completely untrue. Not because I don't like the player, I like him. He is a very good young player but we are not interested," said the Blues boss.

Mourinho, who has Didier Drogba back, added: "We are not interested in any striker at this moment.

"If Didier Drogba's progress continues and in two weeks' time he is playing 90 minutes without any link to his injury, I am not thinking in having more strikers.

"

"The team has adapted very well to playing with three up front and we need only one targetman with Arjen Robben and Damien Duff playing alongside him.

"So for that reason, Mateja Kezman, Eidur Gudjohnsen and Drogba is enough. We don't need another striker."

Mourinho has lost Adrian Mutu from the group of four strikers he started the season with, after the Romanian was sacked in the aftermath of a failed drugs test.

Full story:
Chelsea sack Mutu

But the Stamford Bridge boss clearly feels that Kezman, Gudjohnsen and Drogba, with support from Robben and Duff, gives him enough options.

It is likely, though, that Mourinho will strengthen his squad in January in other areas.

Spurs signed Defoe from West Ham for £7m in January 2004 and he has established himself as the senior striker at White Hart Lane, ahead of Robbie Keane and Frederic Kanoute.

Tottenham head coach Martin Jol has also insisted Defoe would not be leaving.

"We're a big club. Jermain has a five-year contract. He's our player and we're happy with him," said the Dutchman.

"Of course we could stop him going. He's got a good contract here and he can help us. He's an international.

"I don't want to think about offers of £15m to £20m coming in now. He knows we need him and I know he wants to play for Spurs and his international ambitions are a positive for the club.

"If you don't have weapons, you have negatives but we've got good players and Defoe is obviously one of them.

"A lot of the time it's a question of how to get the ball up to him. We bought him for a lot of money and he's here now. He's a terrific talent and I'm not worried about the future."

Defoe


Mutu admits cocaine test failure

Adrian Mutu has accepted his positive test for cocaine, the Professional Footballers' Association has revealed.

The Chelsea striker will decline to have his B sample tested and instead push for a hearing into his case as soon as possible.

Mutu's admission could mitigate any punishment he now faces.

"He will not be going ahead with the second test. He has tested positive for cocaine," PFA chief executive Gordon Taylor confirmed.

Mutu's representative, Gica Popescu, had pleaded with the striker to come clean and avoid the possibility of increasing any ban from the game he may face.

The Romanian international striker met with representatives of the PFA on Monday and will not insist on further analysis of the original test which proved positive for cocaine.

"There will be a hearing at the Football Association, which we hope can be held as quickly as possible to get the matter dealt with," Taylor explained.

He added: "It's very difficult to predetermine what will happen at the hearing, but we do have a distinction between social drugs and performance-enhancing drugs.

"If the player accepts that he is guilty and if he is prepared to undertake rehabilitation, be checked regularly and to be clean then there is greater sympathy towards the player."

Requesting a B sample would, in theory, have given Mutu the chance of clearing his name.

Instead, the 25-year-old will hope his early admission to the offence could significantly reduce the punishment he faces.

But the FA are refusing to comment on the case and clarify whether a more lenient punishment can be sought for social drugs, as opposed to performancing enhacing drugs, as Taylor suggests.

 

Huth claims his explanation was lost in translation Huth is happy to stay at Chelsea
  • Chelsea's German defender Robert Huth reiterated he has no intention of quitting Stamford Bridge for first-team football elsewhere.

    Huth, 20, claimed speculation he would seek a move in January resulted from misquoted reports in the German media.

    He said: "The manager was not happy with what he read, but I told him I did not say those things and want to stay.

    "I only gave interviews to the German papers, and sometimes there might be mistakes with translation."

    Huth added: "I showed him the German papers and said he could get his own translation if he wanted and he was happy with it and we're all good now.

    "I never said anything about my situation. I did not have a reason to say I want to go or am not happy.

    "Obviously I want to play but at the moment I'm a bit short of games, but that's football.

    "The manager has to make his decisions and at the moment I'm not playing.

    "I've been in this situation for the last three years so it is nothing new to me."