Salah at Chelsea - Mourinho rejection despite being "like Messi" in training

Any member of the Stamford Bridge faithful from 2014 to early 2015 would have been drastically underwhelmed and unimpressed by what they saw from a former Basel player that arrived with so much promise.

Despite the rave reviews upon his arrival in west London, Mohamed Salah failed to justify the relatively modest price tag Chelsea signed him for in the winter window of 2014.

Jose Mourinho's side forked out £11m to make Salah the first Egyptian to ever don the famous blue shirt, beating Liverpool to the punch for his signature.

Of course, the story ends with Salah eventually plying his trade at Anfield in the red of Liverpool, but it was a struggle to get to that stage.

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Football can throw up sliding doors moments like that from time to time.

What if Salah had snubbed the call of Mourinho and headed to Anfield three years sooner than he actually did? Would he have still gone on to cement his status as one of the best the English top-flight has ever seen, or was the Stamford Bridge suffering necessary?

We'll never know and all that is here to analyse is the harsh reality that the Salah of Chelsea was a world away from the Salah we see at Liverpool nowadays earning Ballon d'Or shouts.

It took Salah eight games to score his first goal for the Blues in a memorable 6-0 victory over London rivals Arsenal in what was Arsene Wenger's 1000th game at the helm for the Gunners.

He only managed one more for the club before he was exiled from the first time and eventually sent on loan to Serie A outfit Fiorentina.

Long after the dust has settled on a Chelsea career that returned just two goals in 19 appearances, Salah himself has spoken about why he failed to make the grade in west London.

"When I was at Chelsea, I had to change the type of football and culture, and I felt that I needed to change my way of playing.

"So, I went to Italy and played well: that period was a great help to get to where I am now."

The Egypt international discussed whether his development suffered during his time at Chelsea under a manager clearly unwilling to hand him many opportunities.

"When I look back, [I had] bad advice with the situation," Salah told GQ.

"It was so tough for me, mentally. I couldn't handle the pressure I had from the media, coming from outside. I was not playing that much. I felt, 'No, I need to go'."

Despite the lack of playing time, Salah's Chelsea exit still came as a surprise to some of his Blues teammates, with Felipe Luis especially stunned by the news.

"When [Salah] went Fiorentina, I said: 'Why are you going, Momo? This is Chelsea'," Luis explained to the Guardian.

"And he said: 'I need to play'. I thought: 'This kid's good.'

"He never went for money or to win more; he went to show he could play. In training he was like Messi. Really, like Messi. Ask anyone."

Salah's Messi-esque showings at Chelsea's Cobham training complex were not enough to convince Mourinho, with many believing he was at fault for ousting the Egyptian - using the same rigid tactics that harmed Romelu Lukaku and Kevin De Bruyne.

However, the self-proclaimed 'special one' has defended himself from those allegations and suggested Salah was simply a wet behind the years youngster fearful of the bright lights of London.

"For a start people try to identify me as the coach that sold Salah. I am the coach that bought Salah. It's completely the wrong idea," Mourinho told beIN Sports.

"I played against Basel in the Champions League. Salah was a kid at Basel. When I play against a certain team I analyse a team and players for quite a long time.

"And I fell in love with that kid. I bought the kid. "I pushed the club to buy him and at the time we already had fantastic attacking players— [Eden] Hazard, Willian, we had top talent there.

"But I told them to buy that kid. He was more a winger coming inside than a striker. "He was just a lost kid in London. He was a lost kid in a new world.

"We wanted to work him, to become better and better and better. But he was more of the idea of wanting to play and not wait.

"So we decided to put him on loan, in a culture I knew well. Italy. Tactical football. Physical football. A good place to play."

For all of the attention surrounding his failed stint at the Bridge, it hardly went on to have any long-lasting damage.

Salah's talent his gone stratospheric since joining Chelsea's Premier League rivals Liverpool in 2017, inspiring them to both their first league crown in three decades and a sixth Champions League title.

Mourinho meanwhile, is currently having a tough time of it at Salah's old stomping ground in Roma.

The two-time Golden Boot winner is showing no signs of slowing down in a Liverpool shirt but is yet to extend his stay in the red half of Merseyside.

Jurgen Klopp is well aware of the talent he has at his disposal and will likely move heaven and earth to tie Salah down for the next few years, but time is ticking.