Mourinho pinpoints reasons behind Salah and De Bruyne sales at Chelsea
Of all the transfer clangers Chelsea have dropped in the past 20 years (and boy, have there been a few of those), selling Kevin De Bruyne and Mo Salah has got to rankle them the most.
The pair are the Premier League pin-ups of their generation having powered Manchester City and Liverpool to a generation-defining era of dominance, but things could have been oh so different had the Blues kept hold of them.
Jose Mourinho, who was Chelsea boss when De Bruyne and Salah were sold, has taken much of the blame for their departures over the years. Fans have criticised him for failing not only to recognise the quality of the two players but also to provide them with a pathway to first team football, but the Special One insists that isn't fair.
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Speaking to former Chelsea midfielder John Obi Mikel on the Obi One podcast, Mourinho claimed De Bruyne and Salah both pushed for exits because they didn't fancy fighting for a starting spot with the likes of Eden Hazard, Oscar and Willian.
"To be honest, they left because they wanted to leave," the Roma boss said. "They left because they didn’t want to wait. They do decisions like that because they don’t have the patience to be calm and wait for the right moments and sometimes their career goes in the wrong direction for them."
Had Chelsea kept both De Bruyne and Salah, how many Premier League titles would they have won in the last few years? Let us know in the comments section below.
Mourinho, 60, said he took particular issue with accusations he didn't appreciate Salah's talents, insisting he was the one who urged the club to sign the Egyptian from Basel. He said: "When people tell me you let go Salah go, I say exactly the opposite. I bought Salah. I was the one who said buy that guy. He was going from Basel to Liverpool and I made the fight to make him to come to Chelsea.
"Then, yes, then comes to the part where to be a Chelsea player you need to perform of you have to wait. He didn’t want to wait, he wanted to go on loan and then Chelsea at a certain point decided to sell him… that was not me deciding to sell. I was saying let him go on loan if he feels he needs to play every minute of every game.
"With Kevin it was very similar. He went to pre-season in Asia, we went to Indonesia and Thailand and Kevin should go on loan to a German club and I told that club no, I don’t want him to loan I want him with me. He stayed with me and he started the Premier League playing, in the starting 11. After that game we played the Super Cup against Bayern and he didn’t play that game.
"The next day, he wanted to leave! And then we played the second game of the season at Old Trafford against Manchester United, I think we drew 0-0. He was on the bench, but he played some minutes and it was not enough for him. So he wanted to leave.
"When you are at Chelsea, you want to leave, go and another one comes. But they were just kids who couldn’t wait and their career says they were right. But it was not me, probably other guys I pushed them out, but not them."
Chelsea signed De Bruyne from Belgian side Genk back in 2012, six months after nabbing a young Thibaut Courtois from the same team. He was loaned out to Werder Bremen for a season before joining up with his parent club in 2013, the same summer Mourinho returned to Stamford Bridge.
De Bruyne was largely reduced to appearances in cup competitions, and mid-way through the campaign he handed in a transfer request. Chelsea obliged, and sold him to Wolfsburg for £18million. A year-and-a-half later, Man City came calling and snapped him up for triple that figure.
De Bruyne's departure left a hole in Chelsea's squad, and they filled it by signing Salah from Basel for £11m. But like De Bruyne, Salah struggled for minutes and spent most of the next 12 months warming the bench, before pushing for an exit in January 2015.
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He joined Fiorentina on loan before being sent to Roma the following season, and Salah made the move permanent ahead of the 2016/17 season. A year later he was a Liverpool player and gearing up for a jaw-dropping 44-goal campaign.
In the seven years since, De Bruyne and Salah have hoovered up a staggering 18 trophies between them, while Chelsea have lifted just five. They've also both been crowned PFA Player of the Year twice, a feat no Chelsea player has ever achieved.
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