Bruce Buck: Jose will have money to spend

[Lofty]

From Sky Sports: Jose has money to spend

Jose Mourinho will have money to spend on strengthening his squad in the summer - but it is likely to be less than last year.

The Chelsea chairman says a reduction in spending on new players was necessary if the club are to get close to their target of being "profitable" by 2010.

Since Roman Abramovich started bankrolling the club in 2003 Chelsea have spent an astonishing ?300m on new players but announced losses totalling ?80m in February.

"A lot of it will depend on big money transfers, the less of those we make the easier it will be to meet our plan," Buck told Reuters.

"Every year our transfers have gone down so we're making a lot of headway. Young fellows are coming up from the academy, we think, and we are moving towards a break-even model.

"I don't think we as fans can expect unlimited funds from Mr Abramovich forever, that's ridiculous to even contemplate."

Buck said there would be no demand that players were sold before Mourinho could bring new faces in, but stressed the club wanted to keep the first-team squad down to 24 players.

He explained: "Every summer we'll have a couple of players in and a couple of players out. Everyone recognises in light of what we've been through this year, we'll probably need another central-defender, maybe a striker and maybe a midfielder."

Buck admitted Mourinho had wanted to bring in a central-defender in the January transfer window after the injury to John Terry, but the prices quoted for their targets were too high.

"We looked at some players that we all liked, but the proposed financial arrangements weren't appropriate so we didn't do it," he added.

"There's one price for Mr Abramovich and one price for everyone else and we have to close that gap as much as we can."

A couple of related stories:

Crespo reiterating his desire NOT to return to Chelsea

Glenn Johnson on his return to the Bridge, and his intention to fight for a first team place

[The Moos]

I really hope that we don't bring Crespo back. He would be highly useful but I don't think it would be fair to him. He gave his best even though he wanted to return to Italy and we really should respect his decision.

Will be interesting to see what Johnson can do for us. He will have tough competition as RB from Ferreira, Essien, Boulahrouz and Diarra