Jose Mourinho has denied involvement in the sale of Mohamed Salah at Chelsea two years ago.
Salah failed to break into the Blues' first team under Mourinho and was ultimately offloaded to Roma in 2016 following a couple of spells out on loan.
The Egypt international has since returned to the Premier League with Liverpool and has taken the division by storm this term, netting 31 times in the top flight alone to be crowned PFA Player of the Year.
The Manchester United boss is adamant that the sale of Mohamed Salah was Chelsea's decision, however, as the attacker was not ready to make an impact at that stage of his career.
“People say that I was the one that sold Salah and it is the opposite. I bought Salah.
“It is the opposite. I was the one that 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. 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. In football, we make mistakes a lot of times.
“So many times some players develop in ways we were not expecting, some others don't reach another level like we thought they would, so I don't even think this is a mistake, it is just part of the job,” Mourinho told ESPN Brazil.
Salah has scored 43 goals in all competitions this season – only Ian Rush in 1983-84 (47) has scored more in a single campaign for Liverpool.
This article was most recently revised and updated 4 years ago
