Jose Mourinho concedes that the Papy Djilobodji signing was not his idea

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has admitted that summer signing Papy Djilobodji was not his choice, but rather the idea of a person close to the mercurial Portuguese gaffer.

"It was not my choice. It was the choice of someone I trust completely. Which is the same. I don’t know every player. My job doesn’t allow me to travel and spend hours watching players."

Djilobodji, 26, was bought from Ligue 1 outfit Nantes for a reported fee of £2.7 million - a bargain considering the exorbitant nature of the transfer window - as a backup plan in lieu of failed attempts to sign Everton centre-back John Stones.

"In some moments of the market, under certain circumstances, there are moments when you have to trust or not the people you work with.

"In my case, I trust because the same person who told me Djilobodji can be a good squad player was the same person who told me Kurt Zouma can be a fantastic player for us. Obviously I trust him."

The 12-time capped Senegalese international wasn't named to the squad for Saturday's calamitous 3-1 loss to Everton, nor was he added to the roster for Chelsea's Champions League group matches.

"Djilobodji is one of our four central defenders and hopefully useful for us. If he is in the Champions League squad Bertrand Traore or Kenedy are not in the list.

"Traore and Kenedy are young players working with us from day one and we believe it can be a fantastic opportunity if they can play a few minutes in the Champions League."

Traore, brought in from Chelsea's Dutch talent incubator, Vitesse Arnhem, has yet to make an appearance for the Blues.

"The group phase has six matches and we need to be very unlucky if we need Djilobodji in the team when we have John Terry, Gary Cahill, Zouma and Branislav Ivanovic."

Djilobodji's radiant smile may last just as long as his Chelsea career, if the trend of out-of-favour players to leave the Bridge under Mourinho's tenure is any indication, following the exits of the likes of Mohamed Salah, Juan Cuadrado, Andre Schurrle, and Kevin De Bruyne.