Mourinho wants former pupil to replace ageing legs at Chelsea

With Chelsea likely to be starved of silverware this season, Jose Mourinho has begun making noises about those players he wishes to bring to Stamford Bridge this summer in order to make certain the Blues don’t fall short again next season.

As it stands before their Premier League game against Norwich, Chelsea are labelled the long 33/1 outsiders of the trio of title chasers, reliant on major slip-ups elsewhere to stand a chance.

And having been exposed by Atletico Madrid in their Champions League semi-final second leg defeat, Mourinho has apparently wasted no time in drawing up a list of targets.

According to Spanish newspaper Marca, Mourinho has asked his employers if they can pursue 21-year-old Real Madrid centre-back Raphael Varane when the transfer window opens.

The Special One is known to be a massive fan of the Frenchman whom he managed for two years at the Bernabeu , where he gave Varane his big chance for Los Blancos in the first team.

However, since Mourinho’s relocation back to west London, Varane has slipped behind the experienced pairing of Sergi Ramos and Pepe under the management of Carlo Ancelotti.

Although Chelsea have already secured the signature of another gifted young French defender in Kurt Zouma – who arrives from St Etienne this summer – Mourinho clearly feels youth is the way best way forward.

Given the likes of John Terry and Ashley Cole, both 33, are thought to be nearing the end of their time at the Bridge and David Luiz is strongly linked with a move to Barcelona that would only leave Gary Cahill has the one out-and-out first-choice centre-back.

One major stumbling block to the move is that Ancelotti’s assistant Zinedine Zidane was the man who first identified Varane’s talents as an 18-year-old at Lens, so would be reluctant to see him go.

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