The Portuguese coach feels Chelsea have a huge amount of young talent to utilise (Picture: Getty)

Jose Mourinho believes Chelsea’s transfer ban may not be such a bad thing and has encouraged Frank Lampard to make the most of the many young and talented players he has at his disposal.

Christian Pulisic, signed in January, is the only new addition at Stamford Bridge this summer, though the Blues were able to turn Mateo Kovacic’s loan deal from Real Madrid into a permanent move.

Mourinho, though, says his old team are a ‘very special club’ who are better equipped than most to deal with a transfer ban, and has backed two players who have spent most of their Chelsea careers on loan – Kurt Zouma and Tammy Abraham – to shine.

After impressing at Everton, Zouma is back in the first-team fold at Chelsea (Picture: Getty)

‘It depends on what you have in the academy, that’s the point. I think every manager in the world loves to play kids from the academy,’ Mourinho told Sky Sports.




‘The question is: what is the product from the academy? What can you work with to improve? I think Chelsea is a very special club in relation to that. I just give an example: Chelsea needs a centre-back – Kurt Zouma! You don’t need to buy, you don’t need to spend. Zouma!

‘He’s champion of England, he played for Chelsea, played for Stoke in the Premier League, played for Everton in the Premier League, played for France. He’s your player, he’s on loan, where are you going to buy a better player than him? You already have him.

‘You want a young striker – Tammy Abraham! He’s yours. He knows the club. He was made at the club, he was educated at the club. He was on loan, he played already some matches in the Premier League, he plays in the Championship but Championship at the highest level with the responsibility to play at a big club like Aston Villa. He’s ready.

Abraham, who lit it up at Villa, looks set to lead the line for Chelsea this season (Picture: Getty)

‘Do you need to buy a young centre forward? No! And Chelsea were criticised many times with the number of players they had on loan, more than 30 players, 40 players, but now the moment arrived and they have answers like nobody else could have.

‘They have the answers, so I don’t think it’s any problem for them. The only problem for them is obvious which is that they lost a phenomenal player. Eden Hazard was a special player for Chelsea and they lost him, apart from that I don’t see any problem for them.’