Chelsea crisis: Monaco dismiss reports over £35m offer to poach Jose Mourinho as manager

Monaco have made an official statement dismissing speculation linking the Ligue 1 side with a megabucks move for Jose Mourinho. The Chelsea manager's future has been under increased scrutiny in recent days after the Blues suffered their sixth Premier League defeat of the campaign to Liverpool at the weekend.

Alessandro Proto, an Italian businessman who claims to be a minority shareholder at Monaco, claimed last week that the 1 side were interested in getting the services of the Blues tactician, believing him to be the best manager currently around despite his current struggles.

Proto's company, Proto Enterprises, released a statement to Spanish news agency EFE claiming that he had met with Roman Abramovich on London to make a formal €50m (£35.35m, $54.3m) offer for the Special One's services – an offer the Chelsea owner rejected before suggesting a different figure.

"We offered 50 million euros to have the coach immediately, but the request was 100 million euros and the figure seems exaggerated,' the statement said, as quoted by AS.

Monaco, however, dismissed the speculations via an official statement in which they imply Proto is not even a shareholder at the club.

"AS Monaco officially denies the extravagant and unsubstantiated rumours from a supposed minority shareholder," the club stated in its official website. "AS Monaco invites the media to not repeat these rumours."

Mourinho said after the Liverpool defeat he was not considering leaving Chelsea, and when asked in a press conference prior to the Champions League clash with Dinamo Kiev how much time he thought he had left, responded: "Four years. In this case, three years and seven months."

Mourinho signed a four-year deal at Chelsea earlier this season.