Jose Mourinho Identifies his First Summer Transfer Target for Chelsea

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has given his biggest indication as to who his number one striker target will be this summer after suggesting he would like to be reunited with Mario Balotelli.

The Blues are expected to bring an established striker to the club after a season where their current options of Fernando Torres, Samuel Eto'o and Demba Ba have failed to provide a consistent goal threat.

Monaco's Radamel Falcao and Diego Costa of Atletico Madrid have been heavily linked with high profile moves to Stamford Bridge but Mourinho has indicated he is keen to bring AC Milan's Balotelli back to the Premier League.

"In football you never know the future," Mourinho told Yahoo.

"Balotelli is with a big club at the moment but you never know the future.

"They want to keep the best players and want to keep the best Italian players. But Mario has already been in English football before.

"I'm not going to be manager of Milan or the Italy national team, but he's a good kid and somebody I'd like to work with again."

Balotelli, who left Manchester City to return to Italy in January 2013, worked under Mourinho for two seasons between 2008 and 2010 which culminated in a a Serie A, Coppa Italia and Champions League treble success.

Although the relationship between the two was sometimes tempestuous at the San Siro, the 23-year-old admitted earlier this year that he would relish the opportunity to work with the 'Special One' once again.

"Of course I would like to play under Jose again," Balotelli said in January.

"In my first days at Inter we had some problems, but then it turned into a mutual respect, and now we have a real friendship.

"It is never boring playing under Jose. When you are in Mourinho's team it is a family and he coaches on the principal that if all is well with the family it doesn't matter what is going on outside the team."