Mohamed Salah and Kevin De Bruyne have carved out legacies as all-time greats in the Premier League since leaving Chelsea, where their talents were overlooked by Jose Mourinho
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14:22, 08 May 2025
Liverpool's Mohamed Salah (left) and Manchester City's Kevin De Bruyne battle for the ball during the Premier League match at the Etihad Stadium, Manchester.
Liverpool's Mohamed Salah and Manchester City's Kevin De Bruyne both benefited from leaving Chelsea
(Image: PA Archive/PA Images)
Mohamed Salah and Kevin De Bruyne are today hailed as two of the Premier League's all-time greats thanks to their spectacular careers with Liverpool and Manchester City. It's hard to fathom that they both once played for rivals Chelsea and could have been teammates, but the west London club would live to regret the fact that their talents only truly shone after they left Stamford Bridge.
Sky Sport Italia reported this week that the pair could finally unite this summer, with Liverpool said to have made an offer for De Bruyne, whose City contract expires at the end of the season. The 33-year-old Belgian announced last month that he would be leaving the Etihad club as a free agent after a glittering decade-long stint, with the Reds now reportedly capitalising on his desire to continue playing at a high level.
While a move is unlikely, it would see him share a dressing room with Salah, who himself signed a contract extension with Liverpool in April after lengthy negotiations. He and De Bruyne just missed one another at Chelsea, having signed on January 23, 2014 - five days after the latter left for Wolfsburg in search of more game time.
Their respective spells at Chelsea coincided with Jose Mourinho’s second tenure at the helm, which spanned from June 2013 to December 2015 before his sacking. Salah, much like City rival De Bruyne, would become increasingly frustrated under the Portuguese boss and finally left Chelsea in August 2016 for Roma after two loan spells in Serie A.
Mourinho, who now manages Fenerbahce, has come under scrutiny over the years for his failure to harness the potential of two generational talents. He finally addressed their exits on the Obi One Podcast, where he said: “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.”
Both Salah and De Bruyne had fleeting spells at Chelsea, making 19 and nine appearances respectively, before embarking on paths that led them to become household names. Mourinho further expanded on De Bruyne's move away from Stamford Bridge, seemingly taking a swipe at him and Salah’s behaviour by saying they were "just kids who couldn't wait."
Jose Mourinho sold one of Chelsea's leading strikers
Jose Mourinho snubbed two of the Premier League's greatest ever players at Chelsea
Mourinho said: “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.”
In contrast, Chelsea’s former academy coach and loanee liaison officer, Eddie Newton, believes De Bruyne and Salah struggled to secure a regular first-team role because their personalities clashed with Mourinho’s. Newton says both were “more than good enough” to make it at Chelsea, as shown by their incredible achievements in the Premier League since.
Mo Salah at Chelsea
Mohamed Salah left Chelsea in search of game time (Image: GETTY)
“For me, I think Salah and De Bruyne wasn’t about talent,” Newton said in an interview with Goal. “It was a personality clash [with Jose Mourinho]. I just didn’t think it was working at the time. I think they were more than good enough, but it was the manager who didn’t see eye-to-eye with them, so it wasn’t going to work.”
However, De Bruyne has repeatedly said he holds no grudges towards Mourinho for not finding a place for his talents. He believed, and still holds the opinion, that he needed to leave in the winter of 2013 in order to fulfil his immense potential.
When quizzed on whether his success reflects poorly on Mourinho in 2018, the Treble winner replied: “I think it shows Salah and my strength. If somebody comes up to you and it’s not enough, and you make a decision to go to play football and you have confidence in yourself that you can do well, as long as you’re physically and mentally right to do it, you can make it either way.”
The Belgian playmaker acknowledged that both he and Salah might not have reached the same lofty heights had they stayed at Chelsea under Mourinho.
“Obviously, everyone needs to find a system and playing style that suits you more. Probably now we’ve found somebody who suits us both more than it was before,” he admitted. “I think in both our cases that’s true. But that’s the same for a lot of players.
Chelsea's Jose Mourinho, Kevin De Bruyne during pre season training at Cobham Training Ground on 9th July 2013 in Cobham, England.
Mourinho said De Bruyne was like a "kid who couldn't wait"
“I think it’s just because it’s the same manager and it’s both of us in the same season who are going well that people are talking about it, but I think every manager will have had a lot of players who were not suited with each other who went away and did well afterwards.
“Maybe a lot of people are picking up on it now, today, but I’m not really that type of person who thinks about that. It’s just the way it goes, in life, in football.”
Two-time Premier League Player of the Season De Bruyne, who turns 34 in June, is still in high demand as he prepares to leave City with six league titles under his belt. Aston Villa, along with teams from the United States and the Saudi Pro League, have shown interest in snapping up the veteran midfielder.
However, the ECHO reports that Liverpool are not among the clubs pursuing De Bruyne, with the club's recruitment team looking to strengthen different areas of the team. Concerns over his age are also a factor, as Arne Slot's squad already contains a number of players in their thirties such as Salah and Virgil van Dijk.
De Bruyne has been linked with the Reds at various points throughout his career, since an old clip emerged of him as an 11-year-old voicing his love for Liverpool. The thought of De Bruyne feeding passes to Liverpool's talisman remains a tantalising one, yet it seems increasingly unlikely that fans will ever get to see the partnership in action.
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