Jose Mourinho has revealed he had the opportunity to sign both Angel Di Maria and Falcao for Chelsea but opted against bringing in the pair due to the wages involved.
Di Maria and Falcao both joined Manchester United last summer, the former signing from club Real Madrid, where the winger worked under Mourinho, for a British record fee of 59.7 million pounds and the latter joining in a big-money loan move from Monaco.
The two players' agent is Jorge Mendes who also represents Mourinho, and the Blues boss has said he was put off by the mooted salaries, with Falcao reported to be earning around 260,000 pounds a week.
"Jorge told me Di Maria and Falcao are his players and he has to find solutions for them," Mourinho is quoted by The Sun as having said in the book "The Key to Mendes."
"But if Chelsea doesn't have the financial capacity to pay eight, nine or ten million euros a year, because of [financial] fair play, of course Mendes has to think about his players.
"We couldn't bring Falcao or Di Maria because I didn't want to, either. I can't have a player earning 10 million when others earn three, four or five. That would have caused an explosion."
Mourinho also said he came close to becoming England manager after Steve McClaren was sacked in 2007.
He added: "I just needed to sign [for England]. Everything was prepared. At the moment when I had to sign I said: 'I don't want to.' Now I don't want to change.
"I don't want to join another club. I'm in a situation of great stability."