Mourinho opens door for Johnson to join Arsenal or Newcastle

Mourinho confirmed yesterday he will not pursue Daniel Alves after Sevilla upped the asking price for their right back to £27million.

Chelsea instead opted to pay £3.7m for 31-year-old Belletti from Barcelona, although the manager admitted he now has too many right backs in his squad.

Mourinho said: 'I have closed the door of my dressing room and that's very important to me. My squad is completely closed. I know the market is open until the 31st —but not for us. We have the signings we fought for. We have the balance in the squad we need for the season.

'I have 27 in my squad and I will be happy to go down to 26. We have a very balanced squad, with two players in each position, but at the moment in the right back position we have more than two with Belletti, Johnson, (Paulo) Ferreira and (Lassana) Diarra, who is 50 per cent right back.

'Every player likes to play and not just be part of the squad. If a club show a real interest in one of our players and our player shows an interest in leaving for a better situation, we can be open for that.'

The prime candidates to leave appear to be Johnson, the first signing of the Roman Abramovich era, or Diarra, who is wanted by Arsenal and Newcastle.

Mourinho has started his three games this season with three different right backs — Johnson, Ferreira and Michael Essien.

But he expects Brazil full back Belletti, scorer of the winning goal against Arsenal in the 2006 Champions League Final, finally to solve one of his problem areas.

Belletti has been given the No 35 shirt and is available to face Portsmouth today.

Mourinho said: 'He brings what we believe we need. He is a pure right back, not an adaptation like we had so many times with Diarra, Essien and Shaun Wright-Phillips.

And he is not an ordinary one. He has played in two of the biggest teams in the world — Brazil and Barcelona.

'He will not be scared to play for Chelsea. It will be easy for him.'