- Aug 30, 2010
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It’s pretty well established that when Mourinho returned to Chelsea, De Bruyne had just had a great loan at Werder and wanted to make it permanent. Mourinho said no, that he needed him, and De Bruyne started the season in the side, but didn’t do much and once he was dropped he was unable to get his place back ahead of Hazard, Lampard, Willian, Schürrle, Oscar and Mata (who also left in January). Mourinho wanted to keep him but made it clear that De Bruyne would have to prove he deserved to play ahead of the others, and De Bruyne asked to leave as he wanted to be first choice there and then.
Off the back of these sales, Mourinho pushed for Salah specifically to be bought to replenish the stocks in creative positions, that same January. The plan was for the young winger who’d lit up the Swiss league to come in, learn, develop and push to become first choice. However, the start of the next season (in which Chelsea won the 14/15 title, which vindicates any decisions) he barely featured ahead of Fàbregas, Hazard, Oscar, and Willian so was given a loan in the January 15 transfer window to Fiorentina, where he did well. He was meant to stay for 18 months till summer 16, but Roma batted their eyelids at him so he refused to go back to Fiorentina and Chelsea obliged his wishes to see out his Italy stint in Rome. By the time that loan ended, Mourinho had been sacked after a poor start to 15/16 and Salah was allowed to join Roma permanently.
Both Salah and De Bruyne were in their twenties and established internationals by the time Mourinho got hold of them. They were just behind players who were at that point better than them and were not willing to wait for the opportunity. History shows they were right not to wait given how their respective careers have evolved, but the 14/15 League and League Cup success vindicates Mourinho’s preference to play other players, two of whom, Oscar and Hazard, were the same age and find themselves very much amidst the many examples of Uber talented young players who, by buying into Mourinho’s demands, excelled under his management.
I think that also demonstrates that Mourinho is very much focussed on the 'here and now' and not overly bothered about what might be in a couple of season's time. That is in no way a criticism because we've suffered badly from having teams in the past with 50% current star players and 50% gaping holes. If players like Hojbjerg come in at reasonable fees and we can plug some of the gaps I think we'll be all the better for it instead of waiting to sign more star players which always creates issues around finances, availability and their desire to play for us. We're then always in the situation of needing a couple more bits of the jigsaw. In the past we've plugged the gaps with very speculative recruits who have overall been expensive flops. I remember a story about Bill Nicholson who was asked something about the 'luxury' players we had. He replied that the 'luxury' players were the ones that were drawing wages but never got on the pitch because they weren't good enough. Never a truer word.