Chelsea manager José Mourinho has admitted that while he thinks Luke Shaw is a "fantastic player", his excessive pay would cause friction in the dressing room at Stamford Bridge.
Shaw became the most expensive teenager in football after joining Manchester United for £27 million from Southampton and signing a four-year contract reportedly worth £130,000 a week.
Mourinho was interested in the 19-year-old, whose family support are Chelsea fans, but backed away from a deal once he felt the figures started to spiral out of control.
"If we pay to a 19-year-old boy what we were being asked for, for Luke Shaw, we are dead," Mourinho told reporters.
"We kill our stability with financial fair play. We kill the stability in our dressing room.
"Because when you pay that much to a 19-year-old kid - a good player, a fantastic player - but when you pay that amount of money, the next day the players knock on the club's door.
"They would have been saying 'How is it possible I play for this club 200 games and won this and that; how come a 19-year-old comes here and gets more money than I get?' It would kill immediately our balance and we don't allow that."
The Portuguese tactician eventually signed Brazilian left-back Filipe Luís for £15.8 million from La Liga champions Atlético Madrid.
Mourinho added: "You can say Luis is much less expensive. He played for Brazil, won titles in Spain, won a European competition, played in the Champions League final, this guy is much cheaper than an English young lad.
"And is he good for our average wages, yes he is.
"Sometimes you have to make decisions. I don't criticise the other clubs for paying it. They can pay what they want. I don't have any comment about it. But for my club, we can say it would be very negative for us."
Shaw became the most expensive teenager in football after joining Manchester United for £27 million from Southampton and signing a four-year contract reportedly worth £130,000 a week.
Mourinho was interested in the 19-year-old, whose family support are Chelsea fans, but backed away from a deal once he felt the figures started to spiral out of control.
"If we pay to a 19-year-old boy what we were being asked for, for Luke Shaw, we are dead," Mourinho told reporters.
"We kill our stability with financial fair play. We kill the stability in our dressing room.
"Because when you pay that much to a 19-year-old kid - a good player, a fantastic player - but when you pay that amount of money, the next day the players knock on the club's door.
"They would have been saying 'How is it possible I play for this club 200 games and won this and that; how come a 19-year-old comes here and gets more money than I get?' It would kill immediately our balance and we don't allow that."
The Portuguese tactician eventually signed Brazilian left-back Filipe Luís for £15.8 million from La Liga champions Atlético Madrid.
Mourinho added: "You can say Luis is much less expensive. He played for Brazil, won titles in Spain, won a European competition, played in the Champions League final, this guy is much cheaper than an English young lad.
"And is he good for our average wages, yes he is.
"Sometimes you have to make decisions. I don't criticise the other clubs for paying it. They can pay what they want. I don't have any comment about it. But for my club, we can say it would be very negative for us."
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