Ex-Chelsea midfielder John Obi Mikel has revealed that Jose Mourinho once made Mohamed Salah cry due to the way Mourinho spoke to the Egyptian at half-time
Speaking on the Dubai Eye YouTube channel, Mikel recalled: “I think (Salah) was having a bad game and then obviously Mourinho came in and ripped into him, massively ripped into him.”
Mourinho substituted Salah during the interval after ripping into him in front of his team-mates. Mikel was also asked if he thought Salah would go on to become the top player he is now.
“No,” the Nigerian added.
“He was in tears, and what happened is (Mourinho) didn’t let him back onto the pitch in the second half. He took him off.
“It would have been easy to just take him off and say ‘you’re not playing well, off you go, sit down, you’re not going back onto the pitch.’ But he ripped into him and took him off.”
Salah was loaned out to Fiorentina after a year in west London before another loan spell in Italy with Roma. His move to Roma was made permanent in 2016, bringing an end to his time with Chelsea.
Since returning to England with Liverpool, Salah has become a world class player – winning everything there is to win in the game at a club level. As well as that, his output on an individual level has been phenomenal and recognised through the numerous awards and accolades he’s won.
It’s fair to say that Chelsea and Jose Mourinho definitely made a mistake in letting him go, while nobody will be more happy than Liverpool fans how things have turned out.
