The Englishman Frank Lampard (Chelsea coach) criticized the former "Blues" coach and the current Tottenham (Jose Mourinho) for allowing the two Belgian stars Kevin de Bruyne and the Egyptian Mohamed Salah to leave "Stamford Bridge".
"If we don't stand with the young players and be patient with them, we will end up like what happened with us in the past when we sacked players who were in the early twenties, and the coach did not stand by them as much as necessary ... I am in a position I will stand with them until the end," Lampard said.
Mourinho supervised de Bruyne and Salah in the second period of his receipt of the technical management of the London team between 2013 and 2015, but the players did not gain the confidence of "Special One" and gave them a few opportunities to participate in the matches.
In 2014 Chelsea sold De Bruyne to Wolfsburg for 21 million euros, and in 2016 he sold Salah to Rome for 14 million euros.
Since their return to the Premier League, De Bruyne, 28, with Manchester City - who he moved to in 2015 - has performed remarkably, while Salah (27 years), who joined Liverpool in 2017 - has invaded the Premier League, winning two awards for the best player in the tournament And her goal in 2018 and repeated the achievement last season by winning the top scorer for the second season, respectively.
Mourinho confirmed last January that giving up Salah was not his fault. "The club decided to sell him, not me," he said. "I asked to sign him ... My relationship with him was good ... I don't think he regrets leaving the club because he was in his best interest."
He concluded, "Everything went well with him (Salah) and his level developed progressively, while he was in Chelsea he was a young man with a great desire to play every week and every minute and we did not have the ability to give him this opportunity."
It is noteworthy that Chelsea, who is fourth in the Premier League table, will host tomorrow, Thursday, Southampton, while fourth-placed Tottenham will face Brighton in round 19.