Jose Mourinho believes this striker WILL stay at Chelsea!

Much has been said of the future of Fernando Torres this season and especially on this blog. With the manager openly slating our current strike force on more than one occasion, it seemed that Torres was likely to leave this summer. In a surprising change of tact, Jose Mourinho has stated that he believes Torres will stay at Chelsea next season.

Now as I have said, Torres has been linked with a move away from Chelsea ever since he came to the club and struggled to score goals. With Mourinho commenting as he has this season, the speculation surrounding the future of Torres has heightened over recent weeks and I had written articles based on him being linked with a move to Atletico Madrid and just last week, being linked with a move to Inter Milan.

So to the comments made yesterday by the manager. Speaking after beating Cardiff, Jose was asked about the futures of some of the players and of our strike force in particular. He confirmed Samuel Eto'o would be leaving and then spoke of Torres:

"I think he will be at Chelsea, I don’t know, the summer is a long summer.  

Samuel Eto’o finished his contract with the club so the normal situation is that he’s leaving, we want to bring in a striker but Fernando and Demba have contracts and I’m happy with that. It’s no problem for me if they stay at the club as long as they are happy."

I still believe 100% that Demba Ba will leave the club so I wouldn't really take notice of what the manager has said about him. The comment about Torres is encouraging for the player and it will be interesting to see if come the beginning of September, Torres IS still here. 

I have said this many times about Torres. No one can ever question his work rate. It's just his goals. 

What do you people think of what the manager has said about Torres here? Do you think he has a future at Chelsea beyond this season?