Jose Mourinho reveals real reason Mohamed Salah & Kevin De Bruyne left Chelsea – with Liverpool & Man City superstars acting like ‘kids who couldn’t wait’

Plenty of questions have been asked down the years of why the Blues allowed two players that have gone on to become Premier League greats at Liverpool and Manchester City respectively to slip the net at Stamford Bridge. Mourinho worked with both, but saw Salah leave for Roma and De Bruyne to Wolfsburg during his time in west London.

Mourinho has told the Obi One Podcast of why Egypt and Belgium internationals were offloaded before full potential had been unlocked: “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.”

Salah made just 19 appearances for Chelsea before heading to Italy, while De Bruyne took in nine outings.

Mourinho added: “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 XI. 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.”

De Bruyne returned to English football at City in 2015 – and is now a five-time Premier League champion and Treble winner from 2022-23 – while Salah has reached 200 goals at Liverpool since joining them in 2017 and also has Premier League, Champions League, FIFA Club World Cup, FA Cup, Carabao Cup and PFA Player of the Year honours to his name.