Mourinho Reflects: De Bruyne and Salah's Chelsea Beginnings

 Mourinho Reflects: De Bruyne and Salah's Chelsea Beginnings

Mohamed Salah of Liverpool and Kevin De Bruyne of Manchester City during the Premier League match between Manchester City and Liverpool at Etihad Stadium on September 9, 2017 in Manchester, England(Image-Getty)

Kevin De Bruyne and Mohamed Salah will easily find their place in the Premier League history's all-time greats, regardless of their time. De Bruyne excelled at Manchester City and Salah at Liverpool. But neither De Bruyne nor Salah's first Premier League club is City or Liverpool. Both started their Premier League career with Chelsea. But neither could finally settle down at Chelsea.

De Bruyne made just 3 Premier League appearances for Chelsea in two seasons between 2012 and 2014, 9 in all competitions. And Salah, who was at Chelsea from 2014 to 2016, had the opportunity to play only 13 league matches, 19 in all competitions. De Bruyne and Salah were apprenticed to Portuguese coach Jose Mourinho while coaching at Chelsea.

Mourinho was recently asked on the Obi One podcast about De Bruyne and Salah leaving the club. In response, Mourinho said, 'To be honest, they left the club of their own free will. They left the club because they didn't want to wait. History proves that the option they chose was the right one. Their career speaks for itself and they have reached the highest level.”

However, the decision to be impatient could have been a mistake in the end, said Mourinho, "Many times players make such decisions because they don't want to wait or they don't have the patience to stay calm and wait for the right time." Sometimes their careers go in the wrong direction.

Explaining De Bruyne's departure from the club, Mourinho said, 'We went to play pre-season in Asia. We went to Indonesia and Thailand. And Kevin went on loan to a German club. I told the club, I don't want to let him go. I want to keep him to myself. He stayed with me and started the season in the eleventh in the Premier League. Then we went to Prague to play a match against Bayern in the European Super Cup and he didn't play in that match.'

Mourinho also said about De Bruyne leaving the club, 'And the next day he wanted to leave the club. Our second match in the Premier League was against Manchester United at Old Trafford. That match was a goalless draw. He was on the bench that day and even played at times. But it wasn't enough for him. After that he didn't want to stay anymore. When you want to leave a club like Chelsea, someone else will come to replace you. They didn't want to wait. Their career says, they were right.

Salah and De Bruyne had no role to play in leaving Chelsea, with Mourinho insisting, "I had nothing to do with it (their departures). A lot of people might say, I got them out, but that's not the case with those two (De Bruina-Salah).'