Former Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has advised the club to trust their own instead of looking elsewhere for options.

In a recent interview with Sky Sports, the currently unemployed coach gave his opinions on the current challenges the Blues face and how they may be able to overcome them.

This included how to get around the current two-window transfer ban by investing time in the club's exciting youth prospects. Mourinho was quick to single out two bright sparks that have featured heavily so far this pre-season: Kurt Zouma and Tammy Abraham

The Portuguese manager handed Zouma his debut when he was in charge of the club, and still thinks highly of him now. "Chelsea needs a centre-back - Kurt Zouma! You don't need to buy, you don't need to spend. Zouma!

"He's champion of England, he played for Chelsea, played for Stoke in the Premier League, played for Everton in the Premier League, played for France. He's your player, he's on loan, where are you going to buy a better player than him? You already have him."

Mourinho shared a similar opinion in relation to Abraham, who has shown he can score against the best - netting a confident goal against Barcelona in pre-season.

"Do you need to buy a young centre forward? No!" The former manager exclaimed.

"You want a young striker - Tammy Abraham! He's yours. He knows the club. He was made at the club, he was educated at the club.

"He was on loan, he played already some matches in the Premier League, he plays in the Championship but Championship at the highest level with the responsibility to play at a big club like Aston Villa. He's ready."

Legendary Lampard

Mourinho also offered his thoughts on current Chelsea manager Frank Lampard, someone that the Portuguese coach knows very well from his time in charge at Stamford Bridge.

The ex-Manchester United boss was hesitant to make any predictions about Lampard's managerial career but was happy to comment on the Character now occupying The Blues dugout. Mourinho stated, "It would be nice and easy for me to say, because I love him, that he's going to be a phenomenal manager."

"I feel that he has potential, I feel that he loves, which is a very important thing, he loves," Mourinho explained. "That's the reason why he is there - and I wish him the best but only time can speak and in a few years we will see.

"What I always saw in Frank was an example of a professional. I was lucky to have so many untouchables, but he was one of the untouchable players I had in my career. A tremendous professional. Tremendous."

History Repeating Itself

Chelsea face Manchester United in their opening game of the season, a fixture that Mourinho is all too familiar with. 'The Special One' took charge of a recently reinvigorated Blues side on his first game, running out 1-0 winners in the process.

It is a historical fixture in many ways and Mourinho was quick to enforce this idea. "I don't think this is the first game of 38 or 60 for the season, no. I go to the game! And in that moment even more because it was Chelsea vs Manchester United, it was a big game, my first game at home.

"It was the first time. Stamford Bridge. A few new players, [Ricardo] Carvalho, [Didier] Drogba, [Arjen] Robben, [Petr] Cech - a first game for many of us and we were there to win the game, and we won the game!

"In the season where Arsenal was the king, Arsenal was the champion - and what a champion - and unbeatable, but everybody knew that Chelsea wanted it and United wanted it and everybody knew that was the start of a phenomenal fighting season."