After his second spell at Chelsea, the fans have frequently accused Jose Mourinho of letting the biggest talents in world football slip through his fingers.
The two most outrageous cases are Kevin de Bruyne and Mohamed Salah who went on to bigger things after being discarded by Chelsea.
Mourinho has already spoken about De Bruyne's exit, claiming that the Belgian had been forcing the move for months before it took place. But what about Salah? This was the question that our user frankie teardrop has asked, so we'll try to answer it here.
What Mourinho says
Probably unsurprisingly, Mourinho denies he was to blame for that move either.
"Lots of things have been said that are not true," he said back in 2019.
"People try to identify me as the coach that sold Salah, I am the coach that bought Salah. We played Basel when he was a kid and I fell in love with him.
"I pushed the club to buy him. At the time, we had fantastic attacking players, [Eden] Hazard and Willian, but I told them to buy that kid.
"We decided to loan him out to Italy where the football is tactical and physical. Fiorentina are a good team without the pressure of the title. But when the club decided to sell him it was not me."
Despite being in love with Salah, Mourinho only played him 19 times in just over a year. But could it be justified?
What ex-teammates say
From their accounts, an image appears of a young player who was a world-beater in training but did not have the confidence to make a statement when it mattered.
"It is hard to compare to what may have been. I had an overlap with him. The talent was obviously there," Frank Lampard said in 2019.
"At the time, I think we had a lot of options in attacking areas. Number 10's, wingers and he didn’t get as many opportunities for whatever reason but yes you could see the talent was there. But the player that he is now or that came back to Liverpool I think you have to say huge credit is due."
Former Chelsea midfielder Oscar tried to explain Mo's issues at Stamford Bridge earlier this year: “With Salah, it was different [from De Bruyne]. He was unstoppable during practice, but always shy and quiet off the field.
“During the games, I guess he did not have the confidence that we saw at every club he played for after Chelsea, and especially now at Liverpool.”
What Salah says
The Egyptian himself prefers not to dwell on his failure to become a star at Chelsea, although he does admit that at 21, he was too young for such a task.
"Everything has improved since Chelsea. Even my personality was different, I was a kid - I was 20 or 21.
"Now I'm older, everything is different. I have lots of experience in three clubs: I was at Chelsea, then Fiorentina and then Roma. I have a good experience."
