Mourinho: "It was Chelsea's decision to sell Salah not mine, OK?"
Liverpool's Mohamed Salah is the man of the moment; José Mourinho, who hardly used the Egyptian during his time at Chelsea, says he's reached peak maturity.
Mohamed Salah is the man of the moment. The Liverpool ace, who tops the Golden Shoe rankings, has been one of the best players on the planet this season which prompted ESPN to ask his former coach José Mourinho why he let him go at Chelsea.
Mourinho rejects the notion that it was his call to sanction Salah's sale, telling ESPN: "People say that I was the one that sold Salah and it is the opposite - I bought Salah".
Salah wasn't quite ready, explains Mourinho
The Egyptian joined Chelsea from Basel but struggled to adapt in London and according to Mou, he wasn't quite ready to play in the elite: "He came as a young kid, physically he was not ready, mentally he was not ready, socially and culturally he was lost and everything was tough for him. And when they say that I was the one that sold him it is a lie. I bought him. I agreed to send him on loan, I thought it was necessary, I thought that Chelsea had wingers... Some of them are still there like Willian, Hazard and all those players were already at a different level".
The United manager added that the idea to send Salah out on loan to Fiorentina was mutually agreed with the player: "We decided to put him on loan and he asked for that as well. He wanted to play more minutes, to mature, he wanted to go and we sent him on loan to Fiorentina, and at Fiorentina he started to mature".
Mou, happy for "fantastic player" Salah
And Mou went on to say that the definitive decision to sell Salah to Roma was nothing to do with him: "The decision to sell him and to use that money to buy another player wasn't mine. But even if it was, in football we make mistakes a lot of times, so many times some players develop in way we were not expecting, some other don't reach another level like we thought they would, so I don't even think this is a mistake, it is just part of the job.
"Effectively I did buy Salah, I didn't sell Salah, but it doesn't matter. What matters is that he is a fantastic player, and I am really happy for everything that is happening for him and especially because he scores against everyone and he didn't score against us in two games".
| Classification | PTS | WM | TM | LM |
|---|
| Upcoming matches |
|---|
| Classification | PTS | WM | TM | LM |
|---|
| Upcoming matches |
|---|
| Classification | PTS | WM | TM | LM |
|---|
| Upcoming matches |
|---|