Jose Mourinho today revealed Samuel Eto’o has the chance to earn another one-year contract and stay at the club next season.
Eto’o agreed a 12-month deal when he joined from Anzhi Makhachkala in August and has scored more goals than any other striker at the club this term with eight goals.
When asked today if he would rule out Eto'o staying, Mourinho responded: “Of course not . He's a big player, even if he doesn't score 25 goals, because his contribution to the team is very high. We are happy.
“Again, it's not a similar situation to the boys with history in Chelsea, so we cannot compare his situation with Frank (Lampard), Ashley (Cole) - he's a different situation.
“But we can compare in the sense he's very comfortable, and so are we. Very comfortable. Very trustful in our relationship with him. He's the kind of guy that, with his career, he feels very free and very comfortable making decisions just for himself.
“He plays for titles. He decided to come here to the Premier League, to Chelsea, so Samuel is enjoying his career until the end.
“We'll see what he wants to do at the end of the season. Maybe he wants to go to Real Mallorca, as he promised his son. Maybe he wants to stay with us, or go and finish his career at Inter. He doesn't need titles, he doesn't need money.”
Mourinho also confirmed he plans to make two big signings early in the summer transfer window to ensure his side are ready to compete from the start next term.
The 51 year-old manager has brought eight players in since returning to Stamford Bridge, but admitted the squad will be much stronger next season once he spends again.
He said: “At the moment we have a 21-player squad which is exactly the number we want to have. And with the natural improvement every big club has of bringing in one or two players, we are signing players for the future so I think we are doing well. We are doing things progressively; we did something in the summer; we did Nemanja Matic now; we react with Juan Mata (sale to United) with (Mohamed) Salah.
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“I believe next season we are going to have a strong team from day one. I can imagine next season we are going to be really strong but this season we are in the competitions.”
