Jose Mourinho has disclosed that Mohamed Salah and Kevin De Bruyne expressed a desire to leave Chelsea, a decision he now acknowledges as the right one.
The Portuguese manager, who had two stints at Stamford Bridge and secured three Premier League titles, gained notoriety for permitting Salah to join Roma and De Bruyne to move to Wolfsburg.
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Despite criticism directed at Chelsea for letting go of two now-renowned players, both Salah and De Bruyne have evolved into Premier League legends with Liverpool and Manchester City respectively.
De Bruyne played a pivotal role in Pep Guardiola’s treble-winning team last season, accumulating various accolades.
Meanwhile, Salah has become a modern-day club legend for Liverpool, achieving success in the Premier League and the Champions League, and surpassing the 200-goal mark for the Reds.
Explaining the decision to John Obi Mikel on the Obi One podcast, Mourinho said: “To be honest, they left because they wanted to leave. They left because they didn’t want to wait.
“History proves that their option was good because they’ve had the careers they have and reached a high standard, but sometimes kids make decisions like that because they can’t wait, or they don’t have the patience to be calm and to wait for the right moment. Sometimes their career goes in the wrong direction.”
Mourinho explained: “When people say I let 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 a fight, I made a war, to make him come to Chelsea.
“Then comes the part when, to be a Chelsea player, you have to perform, or you need to wait. He didn’t want to wait, he wanted to go on loan. And then Chelsea, at a certain point, decided to sell. He went to Fiorentina and Roma, and 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. We went to pre-season in Asia. We went to Indonesia, Thailand, and Kevin was due to go on loan to a German side.
“I told the club no, I don’t want him out on loan, I want him with me. He stayed with me, and he began the Premier League season playing in the starting 11.
“After that, we played the European Super Cup in Prague against Bayern and he didn’t play that game. Then, the next day, he wants to leave.
“We played the second Premier League game of the season against Manchester United at Old Trafford and we drew 0-0. He was on the bench and he played some minutes, but it wasn’t enough for him, so he wanted to leave.
“When you are at Chelsea and you want to leave, go and another one comes. They were just kids who couldn’t wait, and their careers say they were right, but it wasn’t down to me. Probably other guys will say I pushed them out, but not them.”
