Jose Mourinho: Signing Luke Shaw Would Have Been Detrimental for Chelsea

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has admitted that he opted out of the race to sign Luke Shaw from Southampton due to the youngster's exorbitant wage demands.

Despite interest from the Blues, the 19-year-old left-back joined Manchester United for a staggering £30m fee, to become Louis van Gaal's second summer signing. Reports suggest that the England international agreed to move to Old Trafford after being offered a contract worth £160,000-a-week, making him the highest-paid teenager.

Mourinho believes that if Chelsea had bowed down to accept Shaw's demands it would have upset the other players, who are on lesser packages despite helping the west London club win multiple accolades.

"To pay a 19-year-old boy what we were being asked for, for Luke Shaw, we are dead. We would have killed our stability with financial fair play, and killed the stability in our dressing room," Mourinho explained.

"Because when you pay that much to a 19-year-old kid - a good player, fantastic player - but when you pay that amount of money, the next day we would have had players knocking on our door."

"They would have been saying 'How is it possible I play 200 games for this club, won this and that, yet a 19-year-old comes here and gets more money than I get?' It would've killed immediately our balance, and we couldn't allow that," he added.

The former Inter Milan and Real Madrid boss was seeking Ashley Cole's replacement and signed Filipe Luis from Atletico Madrid.

Chelsea reportedly paid £15.8m for the 28-year-old's services and Mourinho insists that the Brazilian was better suited to the club's policies.

"I don't criticise another club for paying it. They can pay what they want. I don't have any comment about it. But for my club we can say it would be very negative for us, especially when we can say Felipe is much less expensive," the 51-year-old stressed.

"Filipe played for Brazil, won titles in Spain, won European competitions, played in the Champions League final. Yet this guy is much cheaper than an English young lad. And is he good for our average wages? Yes he is. Sometimes you have to make decisions," he concluded.