EXCLUSIVE: Chelsea let Mohamed Salah and Kevin De Bruyne leave Stamford Bridge long before they reached their peak.
Mohamed Salah and Kevin De Bruyne both slipped through Chelsea's fingertips (Image: Getty)
Chelsea have endured their fair share of transfer howlers over the years. Mohamed Salah and Kevin De Bruyne were both sold by senior Stamford Bridge figures before going on to become two of the Premier League era's true greats.
Blues fans are still forced to watch on in agony while Salah, who made only 13 league appearances for the club, tears teams apart with Liverpool. The Egyptian has not finished any of his seven campaigns on Merseyside with fewer than 18 Prem goals and boasts one of the best strike rates in the competition's history.
De Bruyne, who played only nine games for Chelsea, inspires the same sense of regret while pulling the strings for reigning Premier League champions Manchester City.
Neither player showed, during their time at Stamford Bridge, that they would go on to become modern heavyweights of the game. Chelsea newcomer Jadon Sancho will hope that, like Salah and De Bruyne, his career will take off after moving to pastures new.
With the winger making an electric start to his loan move from Manchester United, which will become permanent by obligation next summer, Chelsea could flip the script of their past transfer failures and make the Red Devils regret letting go of a top talent.
Premier League legend Michael Owen believes that a change of manager can sometimes be all a player needs to unlock their full potential.
"Some players play better under some managers in different teams," Owen told Express Sport, in association with AceOdds. "We've seen it loads of times. We've seen some of the great players not work out at certain teams. You look at someone like De Bruyne and Salah now, two of the best players in the Premier League.
"Well, they were sold by Chelsea at some point. They certainly weren't this good back then and the managers in the club at the time didn't foresee them being this good back then, otherwise they wouldn't have sold them.
"Sancho going to another top club was a great move for him, under a manager [Enzo Maresca] who likes him and knows him. As I say, there's no point having a huge asset sat on your bench or even sat in the stands, so you might as well sell him if that's the case.
"So it was probably a good move for everybody in the end. Sancho had plenty of chances with Manchester United. With the manager [Erik ten Hag] staying and that bit of friction between the manager and the player, then it might have been a wise move for all concerned."
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