Mourinho says Chelsea were behind the decision to sell Liverpool star Salah
- Jose Mourinho has lashed out at critics who keep blaming him for offloading Mohamed Salah when he was at Chelsea
- The Portuguese tactician was blamed for allowing the forward leave Stamford Bridge
- Mourinho splashed out £14m on the Egyptian to make the switch from Basel in January 2014
Former Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho has revealed the men behind the decision to offload Mohamed Salah during his short spell at Stamford Bridge.
According to The Mirror report citing beIN Sports, the ex-Man United tactician further revealed the Egyptian star found it difficult to settle in at Stamford Bridge after joining from Swiss side, Basel in January 2014.
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Interestingly, Salah’s decent show against Chelsea in 2012-13 Europa League and the 2013-14 Champions League, ensured Chelsea splashed the cash.
But after arriving London the Egyptian star struggled to perform under Mourinho's guidance.
At the last count, he featured in 19 games for the Blues under the Portuguese, but was offloaded to Serie A campaigners Fiorentina in February 2015.
Finally, Chelsea sold Salah to Roma in August 2016, but in 2017 he returned to the English topflight after joining Liverpool.
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“First of all let’s start with Salah. Because lots of things have been told which are not true," Mourinho was quoted as saying by beIN Sports.
“For a start people try to identify me as the coach that sold Salah. I am the coach that bought Salah. It’s completely the wrong idea.
“I played against Basel in the Champions League. Salah was a kid at Basel. When I play against a certain team I analyse a team and players for quite a long time. And I fell in love with that kid.
“I bought the kid. I pushed the club to buy him and at the time we already had fantastic attacking players - Hazard, Willian, we had top talent there. But I told them to buy that kid. He was more a winger coming inside than a striker," noted Mourinho.
“He was a lost kid in a new world. We wanted to work him, to become better and better and better. But he was more of the idea of wanting to play and not wait.
“So we decided to put him on loan, in a culture I knew well. Italy. Tactical football. Physical football.
“A good place to play. Fiorentina are a good team to play for without the pressure of playing for the title.
“And we decided that move there. When the club decided to sell him it was not me.
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"But I bought him, not sell him and my relationship with him was good.
"I think he doesn't regret that move because the progression went well, but he was just a kid who wanted to play every week and I couldn't give him that,” Mourinho said.
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Source: YEN.com.gh
