A former Chelsea coach at the heart of their loan system has revealed the reason why Mohamed Salah left for good, and claimed Romelu Lukaku simply “wasn’t ready” in his first stint at the club.
That’s the view of Chelsea’s former loan technical coach Eddie Newton, who has also spoken about Romelu Lukaku’s previous exit from Stamford Bridge.
Salah, De Bruyne and Lukaku are three of the best footballers in the world right now, but they have had to work hard to get to the very top and all endured spells at the London club during their younger days.
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Mourinho returned to Chelsea for a second spell in 2013 as he won the Premier League for a third time but was eventually sacked in 2015 after falling out with several players in the team.
Both Salah and De Bruyne were let go during that period after loan spells but Newton claims it was nothing to do with their talent.
‘For me, I think Salah and De Bruyne wasn’t about talent. It was a personality clash [with Jose Mourinho]. I just didn’t think it was working at the time,’ Newton told Goal.
‘I think they were more than good enough, but it was the manager who didn’t see eye-to-eye with them, so it wasn’t going to work.’
Lukaku also found himself out on loan during Mourinho’s tenure where the Belgian forward made a name for himself at Everton before joining Manchester United.
But Newton says Lukaku wasn’t ready to lead the line for the Blues when the decision was made to allow him go. He said: ‘For Lukaku, he wasn’t ready at the time, and I don’t care what anyone says.
‘He just wasn’t ready to be the main No.9 up front and carry that platform like Didier [Drogba]. He was always going to be compared to Didier and it wasn’t fair to him at that time. ‘It was different situations for different players.’
