Thibaut Courtois: 'Chelsea powerless to keep Nemanja Matic'

By Daniel Lewis, Senior Reporter | 03 November 2017

Courtois: 'Blues powerless to keep Matic'

Chelsea goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois hints that his side had little choice but to sell Nemanja Matic in the summer as the midfielder had a "strong will to leave".

Thibaut Courtois has insisted that Chelsea have the midfield strength to cope without Nemanja Matic over the course of the season following his departure to Manchester United.

The Serbia international was given the green light to move between the Premier League title rivals in late July, despite playing a pivotal role in the Blues' successful campaign last time out.

Matic has made an instant impact at United, featuring in every minute of their Premier League and Champions League campaign, but Courtois has hinted that the 29-year-old forced the club's hand by angling for an exit.

"That's not my decision to make. Those are questions you need to ask to the people who made that happen," The Independent quotes Courtois as saying ahead of Sunday's meeting between the two sides. "If a player nowadays wants to go to a team, then he has – I don't want to say the power – but if he has a strong will to leave and join another team then it is hard for the club.

"You cannot just ignore him and say 'you cannot leave' because then you have a disappointed player who won't play at his best. So obviously for us you give a player to another big team, but they are choices that are made in football and we have some quality midfielders, so I hope we can show on Sunday that we are better."

"Have we missed him? I don't know. We know Nemanja's qualities, he is someone who last year gave us the balance as well. He decided to go to another team, so we won't live in the past. Our midfield is very good, we have very strong players so I don't know if we miss him. But if you have two injuries in midfield, then, of course, you can say yeah we miss Nemanja because he is another quality player and he is doing well in Manchester."

United boss Jose Mourinho admitted earlier this week that he was "surprised" to be given the chance to sign Matic during the off-season.