Jose Mourinho finally reveals true reasons why Mo Salah, Kevin de Bruyne were sold by Chelsea
Mohamed Salah and Kevin de Bruyne during their Chelsea days
Jose Mourinho has finally come clean on two of the biggest transfers failures of his career and why Chelsea sold both Kevin de Bruyne and Mo Salah in cut-price deals only for the pair to return to the Premier League and become two of the all-time greats.
The Portuguese firebrand is one of the game’s most recognisable names after a stellar career in football management. Now in his eighth managerial role, spanning some 21 years, Mourinho has won trophies at every club he’s been at, with the exception of Tottenham.
He’s perhaps best known for his time in the Chelsea dug-out, having taken charge at Stamford Bridge on two separate occasions.
It was during that first spell in SW6 where Mourinho really made his mark on the game, helping the Blues to five trophies over two seasons, including successive Premier League crowns and with a win percentage of over 67 per cent.
However, by the time Mourinho returned to Chelsea over six years later and via spells at Inter Milan and Real Madrid, he was beginning to gain a reputation as something of a chequebook manager, succeeding only after lavishing huge sums of money at some of the game’s elite stars.
And it was during Mourinho’s second spell in charge at Chelsea that the Blues signed two relative unknowns in De Bruyne and Salah, with the Belgian midfielder coming in from Genk and the Egyptian winger arriving from Swiss side Basel.
Unfortunately, the pair left Stamford Bridge with neither making much of a mark.
De Bruyne and Salah: Premier League legends
Indeed, De Bruyne departed for Wolfsburg in a £18m move back in January 2014. But after underlining his superstar qualities in the Bundesliga, he would return to the Premier League just 18 months later, signing in a club-record £55m move to Manchester City.
Now in his ninth season at the Etihad, De Bruyne has won 13 major honours, including five Premier League titles and the Champions League.
He was given just nine outings in total while a Chelsea player.
Salah, meanwhile, featured 19 times in total, scoring twice before Mourinho, who was well blessed for wingers at the time, decided to move him on to Roma, who signed him permanently after a season on loan.
However, the Giallorossi were to make a quick profit on their initial £12.9m investment, selling him to Liverpool for £36.9m just a year later.
Salah has since smashed in 200 goals in 324 appearances for the Reds, sitting third on their all-time top goalscorer charts.
The sale of the two players, who have very much become Premier League legends, is a stick often used to beat Mourinho with.
Mourinho explains why Chelsea sold De Bruyne and Salah
Now the 60-year-old has explained for the first time why he allowed the pair to leave on the cheap.
Speaking on the Obi One podcast, Mourinho revealed: “To be honest, they left because they wanted to leave. They left because they didn’t want to wait.
“Their history proves that their option was good, because they did the career they did. They have reached a high standard. But sometimes kids, they do decisions like that because they cannot 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.
“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. He went to Fiorentina and then Roma and then Chelsea decided to sell, 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.”
Mourinho’s explanation appears more than fair enough: two hungry, quality players who just wanted to better themselves. And as he touches on, the pair can have no quibbles at the decisions they made and how their careers have mapped out since.
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