Mata taunts Mourinho’s ‘luxury player’ remarks over him

If your manager releases you, it does not mean you are worthless since every transfer is powered by several factors and Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho is one such mentor who made several changes to the side by releasing players he assumed to be worthless for him. Juan Mata and Kevin De Bruyne are two such players who were switched by Portuguese back in 2014 to Manchester United and Wolfsburg and then it was assumed both of them can never fit in the play style of league soccer and now when Mata switch is proving to be a safe bet by Van Gaal along with Bruyne’s return back to Manchester City, Mourinho prediction about both of them proved to be completely wrong. Second term serving North Londoners boss seems to be doing same mistake again when he put Eden Hazard on bench saying defender needs to improve his form to secure a place in the A-team. Had it been the last season, everyone would have backed Portuguese decision but this year when Blues are struggling to even secure a birth among top four in the leaderboard, no one can accept the ousted of player like Hazard and Juan Mata is one such player who taunted over the former Everton boss for his decision making skill.

Talking about his journey from Stamford Bridge to Old Trafford and how it helped him sharpen his ball holding technique, Mata said at a Special Olympics project in Madrid, “If a luxury player is a player who scores and assists and has good stats, then I’m happy to be a luxury player. I’ve scored as many goals for Manchester United in the Premier League as for Chelsea, but in something like 30 games less. In terms of scoring and assisting I’m quite happy with the stats, and stats don’t lie. They are facts.

“I want luxury players in my team. I like creative players, and players who do different things. It’s easy to say certain players are luxuries, especially when you’ve lost a game. When you lose, a certain kind of player — the creative players — always get the blame.

“I’ve not tried to prove anyone wrong. I didn’t speak with Mourinho like he has spoken with you, for example. I never had any explanations and didn’t ask for them. But what is past is past. I will always be very grateful to Chelsea for everything they did for me, but I had a chance to join a great club and am enjoying it here. I’ve got a good record with goals and assists and hopefully we can reach a point where we win trophies, which is what I did at Chelsea.”