Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho has revealed that he tried to sign Samuel Eto'o from Barcelona in his first spell at the club in 2006.
The Portuguese has admitted that the Cameroon international was his primary striking target but the bid failed, and as a result the Blues signed Andriy Shevchenko.
Mourinho told the club's official website: "We wanted to buy Samuel Eto'o, he was our target. The owner was more than ready to bring Eto'o here because he was the player I wanted.
"We wanted Eto'o; Mr Abramovich did everything to bring him and [then chief executive] Peter Kenyon did everything to bring him. In the end, Barcelona said they didn't want to sell, forget it.
"So our option that the owner was doing everything to bring wasn't possible because Barcelona decided no money would do it. After that we went to other options and it became the Shevchenko option."
Shevchenko scored just 22 goals during his three years at Stamford Bridge.
Simon Sinclair
