Former Chelsea and Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho claims it was not his decision to sell Mohamed Salah to Roma.
When the Egyptian joined Liverpool in the summer of 2017 and began to impress for the Reds, Mourinho received most of the flak for having sold him too early when in charge at Stamford Bridge.
The 26-year old smashed several records in his first season on Merseyside, guiding Liverpool to the Champions League final and leaving a number of Chelsea fans ruing what they could have had.
However Mourinho has moved to dismiss rumour that it was his decision to let the forward go, claiming it was a decision made above his head.
Speaking to BeIN Sports, as cited by Squawka, Mourinho had this to say on his relationship with Salah:
First of all let’s start with Salah. Because lots of things have been told which are not true.
For a start, people try to identify me as the coach that sold Salah. I am the coach that bought Salah. It’s completely the wrong idea.
I played against Basel in the Champions League. Salah was a kid at Basel. When I play against a certain team I analyse a team and players for quite a long time. And I fell in love with that kid. I bought the kid.
I pushed the club to buy him and at the time we already had fantastic attacking players – Hazard, Willian, we had top talent there. But I told them to buy that kid. He was more a winger coming inside than a striker.
He was just a lost kid in London. He was a lost kid in a new world. We wanted to work him, to become better and better and better. But he was more of the idea of wanting to play and not wait.
So we decided to put him on loan, in a culture I knew well. Italy. Tactical football. Physical football. A good place to play. Fiorentina are a good team to play for without the pressure of playing for the title. And we decided that move there.
When the club decided to sell him it was not me. I bought him, I did not sell him.
