Mourinho: Falcao has not told me he wants to leave

Jose Mourinho has expressed surprise at suggestions that Radamel Falcao is set to depart Chelsea before the end of his loan spell in June.

The Colombian has scored only once in eight appearances in all competitions since joining on a season-long loan from Monaco.

Reports have linked Falcao with a January exit from Stamford Bridge, but the Portuguese coach has insisted that he will remain with the squad for the duration of the deal.

However, Mourinho insisted that improved performances will be required if Falcao is to challenge Diego Costa for a first-team role.

“I speak with him every day, it’s quite strange the media knows something I or my club don’t know,” Mourinho said.

“He has to give us more than Diego Costa. We normally play with one striker and I always go for the performance level.

“It’s a direct competition – the best one plays. It can be tough.”

The Chelsea coach was in the stands for Ukraine’s clash with Spain during the international break, with Shakhtar Donetsk coach Mircea Lucescu suggesting that he was there to watch Dynamo Kiev winger Andriy Yarmolenko.

Yarmolenko signed a new contract with his club last Friday, and the Portuguese insists he already has enough similar players on his books.

“Of course I wasn’t looking at [other] players,” Mourinho said on Monday.

“When people start some rumours they have to think a little bit before the rumour. Why? When Chelsea has Pedro, [Eden] Hazard, Willian, Kenedy, [Bertrand] Traore, [Juan] Cuadrado and Victor Moses.

“We cannot make a collection of wingers. When people want to make rumours they have to find players in positions where we don’t have so many.

Chelsea are currently third in Group G and could do with a positive result in Kiev, with Mourinho hoping Saturday’s Premier League win over Aston Villa can provide a springboard to better results.

He continued: “We need to win matches in the Premier League to improve our position and we need points to qualify in the Champions League.

“We need to improve results and as we improve results, we improve our confidence.

“We had too many bad results at the beginning of the season, but hopefully now we can go in the right direction.”