Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho has insisted that he was not behind Mohamed Salah's departure from Chelsea two years ago.
The Egypt international failed to break into the Blues' first team under Mourinho and was eventually offloaded to Roma in 2016 following a couple of spells out on loan.
Salah has since returned to the Premier League with Liverpool and has taken the division by storm this term, scoring 31 times in the top flight alone to be crowned PFA Player of the Year.
Mourinho is adamant that it was Chelsea's decision to sell the star of the future, 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," Mourinho told ESPN Brazil. "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."
Salah has netted 43 goals in all competitions this season - only Ian Rush in 1983-84 (47) has scored more in a single campaign for Liverpool.
Daniel Lewis
