LONDON -- Jose Mourinho has remained coy about Chelsea's reported £4 million bid for FC Tokyo forward Yoshinori Muto but said the club would never sign a player out of purely commercial interests.
FC Tokyo president Naoki Ogane has been quoted as saying Chelsea have made a "formal offer" for Muto, and Mourinho refused to deny the speculation at his news conference on Friday.
"I don't make bids," the Chelsea boss initially said, when asked about the story.
The news of the bid emerged as Chelsea plan a postseason tour of Japan, in conjunction with new sponsor Yokohama Rubber.
While accepting that football does now involve business interests, though, Mourinho denied it would affect team planning, and said that a club would "never bring a player if the player has no capacity to be in the squad."
He added: "That's modern football. That's modern management. So there is something that in modern management you cannot close completely the door to a little bit of commercial interests, but at the same time, a football club is always a football club and a top football club has only space for very good players, or at least very good prospects, so, no, we would never bring a player if the player has no capacity to be in the squad.
"The only thing I can say is to repeat a little bit which I told before. In modern football, and modern football is a business, and industry, you have to think about the financial situation, especially a club like Chelsea that wants always to be under the rules and under the financial fair play, so it's important for us.
"But we are a football club. We want to win matches and trophies, and we don't get players unless we believe the player is a good player or good prospect, that's for sure."