He knows what he's doing!

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Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has emphasized today the importance of Chelsea's policy of finishing all or our transfer business early in the window.

The Blues have already achieved most of their transfer window objectives with the signings of Mark Schwarzer, Marco Van Ginkel, and Andre Schurrle with the only remaining major transfer target being Manchester United's Wayne Rooney. This puts the Blues in a better position then their rivals and Mourinho sees it that way as well:

"The sooner you have the players, the better," said Mourinho. "You know the squad you have, you know what you have to work with, you have time for that.

"Many clubs are waiting to the last moment to make their decisions. The problem is that those decisions affect not just one or two clubs, but a lot of them."

"The one who sells has to go and buy, then they have to buy to replace, so no club is safe.

"Until the last minute somebody can go there and steal a player. I don't mean steal a player, but steal the balance that a manager has when he's working with

a team.

"In that aspect, we are lucky because we don't have players to sell, so none of my players is leaving under any circumstances.

"That's good for me, but many teams will be until the last moment under pressure, without knowing how the squad is going to be."

And to be honest the Blues HAD TO make early signings because if we have a look at Chelsea's first nine fixtures of the season (that too without the Champions League fixtures which are yet to be drawn!) the first three months look pretty scary!

Aug 17: Hull City (h)

Aug 24: Manchester United (a)

Aug 30: Bayern Munich (n) UEFA Super Cup [Aston Villa (h) postponed as a result of this match]

Sep 14: Everton (a)

Sep 21: Fulham (h)

Sep 28: Tottenham Hotspur (a)

Oct 10: Norwich City (a)

Oct 19: Cardiff City (h)

Oct 26: Manchester City (h)

Yes, if you look at it there are 2 London Derbies (which include the 20km trip up North to White Hart Lane), a trip to Goodison Park, a trip to Old Trafford, hosting Manchester City and of course going to Prague to play our dear friend, Mr Guardiola.

Which is exactly why we had to make early signings! The new players can at least warm up with the team in preseason get some time in the Chelsea shirt, adjust to the environment etc so that way they don't arrive at the club and the 1st thing they've got to do is to play at Old Trafford!

If we had signed players late, by the time they got better and started getting used to the club we would have already lost some VITAL points. Which is why if we were to sign Rooney a little later than foreign league players it wouldn't be too much of a problem since Rooney's been playing the Premier League for the past 11 years!

Meanwhile Mourinho who has been (should I say 'accused') of playing 'mind games' with Manchester United manager, David Moyes said (on his arrival in Jakarta, where Chelsea play an All-Star XI on Thursday):

"If to say that my colleague in Man United is a great coach, he deserves success, he deserves time to work, he didn't win trophies at Everton because it's difficult to win trophies there... If to speak good about him is to play mind games, what do you say if I speak bad about him?

"The best thing is not to speak, and if I don't speak nobody says nothing."

Classy.