I expected to lose Mata to Barcelona or Real Madrid, not United

Last summer I feared Juan Mata wouldn’t be staying at Chelsea much longer.

He’d been superb for us for two years and a deserved back-to-back player of the season. And brilliant Spanish players tend to end up starring for Real Madrid or Barcelona.

So I thought we might only hold on to him for another year or so. But at that point I never dreamt we’d be letting him go willingly, never mind to a Premier League rival.

And yet it seems that is now the position we find ourselves in – with a bid of £35m or £40m from Manchester United, depending on who you believe.

I’m a huge fan of Mata. He’s supremely skilful – at his best he felt like a successor to Gianfranco Zola – and also seems to be an intelligent, modest, charming man; a wonderful ambassador for the club.

“We just shouldn’t be boosting our rivals by selling them brilliant players.”

But I can understand why he hasn’t been central to Jose Mourinho’s plans.

I’m not convinced Mata doesn’t work hard but he doesn’t track back or tackle as much as Oscar or Eden Hazard and he does like to wander all over the pitch.

That tendency to pop up anywhere in the attacking half and always want the ball was part of his brilliance over his first two seasons at Stamford Bridge, but everyone knows Mourinho likes discipline and structure in his teams.

Once this discrepancy between what Mata was and what Mourinho wanted became apparent, there seemed to be two possible outcomes.

Mata, surely a good and intelligent enough footballer to change his game if he fancied it, would either adapt in a similar way to Joe Cole in Mourinho’s first spell at Chelsea, or he would move on to a club prepared to indulge him and accept his unpredictability is part of his brilliance.

And Mata seems as far as ever from being part of Mourinho’s first-choice team and so the move seems the more likely outcome.

So, does it matter?

On the one hand Mata was a star for Chelsea for two years. It’s always sad when a great player or a fan favourite moves on, and he is both.

But on the other hand, Hazard and Oscar are flourishing – with the Belgian in particular seeming to get better and better – and we also have Willian and Andre Schurrle.

It would be lovely to keep them all. What fan doesn’t want his team to have an embarrassment of attacking riches?

But Mata is far too good a player to sit on anyone’s bench, so the current situation just isn’t practical in the long term.

The money we would get for selling him could be also used to buy players in areas where we aren’t so strong.

And while Mata was the star of the team for two years, let’s not forget those were the only seasons of the past decade in which we’ve been nowhere near winning the league.

Of course we won European trophies – and Mata was vital in those runs – but is it better to be a star in an inconsistent team or one of several vital cogs in a team challenging for the title?

So if Mata is to leave, does it matter if he goes to Old Trafford? I think it does.

Manchester United are, by their own high standards, in disarray.

They feel further adrift than we were when we finished sixth two years ago, and Mata would improve their team enormously.

He might help us by popping up with a great performance against Manchester City or Arsenal between now and May, but he also might score a winner against us for United next year. I’d hate that.

We just shouldn’t be boosting our rivals by selling them brilliant players. And the fact Wayne Rooney seems not to be heading the other way suggests United think that too.

Some fans say we should just trust Jose and accept he’ll be right. Well on most things I do – I think he’s the best manager in the world – but I also remember that in his first spell in charge he replaced the brilliant Damien Duff and Arjen Robben with the hapless Shaun Wright-Phillips and Florent Malouda.

Of course, Mata hasn’t left yet. He could stay, adapt and force his way back into the team. But most of the signs are he won’t.

And so, I accept he has to leave. But I just don’t want it to be to Manchester United.

The day I see Juan Mata run about in their shirt would be a sad one indeed.

James Clarke is the author of Moody Blues: Following the second-best team in Europe

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