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Jose Mourinho today confirmed he is going to give Victor Moses a chance to resurrect his Chelsea career this season.
Moses has not played a competitive game for the Blues since Mourinho returned as manager in 2013.
The Nigeria winger has been loaned out to Liverpool and Stoke over the past two years and the Chelsea boss believes the 24-year-old has made good enough progress to be given an opportunity with the champions.
Tottenham have been linked with an £8 million move for him, but speaking after Moses was one of Chelsea’s better performers in a shock 4-2 defeat against New York Red Bulls, Mourinho said: “I see him fitting in. He’s strong, he’s experienced, he knows the Premier League well, he’s fast, he’s aggressive
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“Okay, he has to play with us. But I’m happy with his week, with his 45 minutes and the next match (against Paris Saint Germain) he will have 45 more minutes. But Victor has had an evolution in the last couple of years.”
Moses joined from Wigan for £9m in 2012 and scored 10 goals in his first 12 months with Chelsea’s first team, five of which helped the club claim the Europa League.
Mourinho insisted that 19-year-old Bertrand Traore is also going to be a part of the first team squad and will not be farmed out on loan again.
Traore joined Chelsea two years ago, but the Burkina Faso international was sent to Vitesse Arnhem to play regularly and to earn a work permit, which was granted last month.
It was understood Mourinho would wait to see how he fared on the pre-season tour of North America before deciding his future.
But he has already seen enough in training since Traore, who also started against the Red Bulls, joined up with his team-mates last week to be reassured of the winger’s abilities.
He added: “Traore’s not going on loan. We want to keep him, we want to improve him. With the ball he has a lot of talent but sometimes he doesn’t make the right decisions yet.
“He had situations in the first half against the Red Bulls when we wanted to counter attack and he kept coming inside – he doesn’t make the best decisions. But this is absolutely normal. But step by step; good kid, good talent.”
Mourinho admits he was stunned by his team’s defensive mistakes as they let in four goals in the second half to lose to an understrength Red Bulls side.
Chelsea took the lead through Loic Remy in the first half, but fell apart after the break, even though captain John Terry, Eden Hazard, Diego Costa, Cesar Azpilicueta, Oscar and new £8m signing Asmir Begovic were all on the pitch.
Mourinho said: “I am surprised by the frailties. We had lots of frailties. I was surprised that we were not good enough in the second half to cope with that.”
Culled from London Evening Standard
