The Red Devils manager has hits out on critics who claim he decided to sell the Egyptian to the Serie A club in 2016
Manchester United coach Jose Mourinho has revealed that it was never his decision to sell Egyptian international Mohamed Salah to Roma in 2016.
The Portuguese manager has been blamed for Chelsea losing such an important player especially after the 25-year-old has been in a blistering form this season with Liverpool, after scoring 41 goals so far in all competitions.
“People say that I was the one that sold Salah and it is the opposite. I bought Salah. I was the one that told Chelsea to buy Salah. It was with me in charge that Salah came to Chelsea. But 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,” Mourinho told ESPN.
“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.
‘Chelsea decided to sell him, OK? 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, Eden Hazard and all those players already in a different level.
“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,” he added.
Salah joined Liverpool in 2017 for a club-record fee of £36.5m. He has however been linked with a move to Real Madrid
