Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho has hailed owner Roman Abramovich for being ahead of the curve in terms of financial fair play.
The Blues signed young players such as Romelu Lukaku, Tomas Kalas and Kevin de Bruyne in 2011 and immediately loaned them out to European clubs.
However, Mourinho feels that this experience has been vital and will save the Blues funds in the long run, allowing them to compete for trophies while remaining within the limits of the new financial system.
Mourinho told BBC Sport: "With the current Chelsea squad, [Abramovich] was thinking ahead of the others. If people want to follow financial fair play - and we will, I don't know if others are keen to do it but we will - he was thinking ahead.
"When Chelsea were buying lots of young players, but the young players were not yet ready to come to play for Chelsea, I was in Italy. I was listening and reading some of the critics.
"You can see this season we have De Bruyne, Lukaku, Kalas. We've brought back three or four players with zero investment now because the investment was made before."
Chelsea are currently on their pre-season tour of Asia and play their first game later today against Singha All-Stars.
Simon Sinclair
