Jose Mourinho rules out Axel Witsel signing as Chelsea have no space for midfielders

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has ruled out signing Belgium international Axel Witsel as he has "no space" to bring another midfielder to Stamford Bridge.

The 26-year-old midfielder has also been linked with a move to AC Milan and Juventus in recent weeks after it emerged the player is likely to leave Zenit St Petersburg during the summer transfer window to make a step forward into a bigger league.

Italian newspaper Il Corriere Dello Sport recently claimed that Milan have earmarked the signing of the Belgium midfielder as a top priority for the summer, especially after rivals Inter MIlan beat them to the signing of former Monaco star Geoffrey Kondogbia.

The Italian publication, however, added that Milan may lose the battle with Chelsea as the Blues are ready to offer €34m (£23.8m, $37.1m) to Zenit to secure his services – while the Italian giants could not afford that figure.

But Mourinho has claimed that with Cesc Fabregas, Nemanja Matic, John Obi Mikel, Ramires, Oscar and academy star Ruben Loftus-Cheek all in his ranks he is not looking to bolster the midfield further this summer.

"At this moment we have Matic, Ramires, Fabregas, Mikel, Loftus-Cheek and Oscar. Six midfield players. I have no space for midfield players. No space. So if somebody talks about midfield players it's not true," the boss said, as quoted by Standard Sport.

The Portuguese boss recently decided to loan Marco van Ginkel to Stoke City until the end of the season, while earlier in the summer Mario Pasalic was sent to Monaco after the two Chelsea midfielders spent the previous season on loan at Milan and La Liga side Elche respectively.

Meanwhile, Oriol Romeu, who has been on loan at Valencia and Stuttgart during the last two campaigns, is also expected to move away one more time after being left out of the squad for the pre-season tour of the US.