Mo Salah was ‘reduced to tears’ after Mourinho ‘destroyed’ star during Chelsea savaging

John Obi Mikel has detailed how Mohamed Salah was “reduced to tears” as Jose Mourinho “destroyed” him by tearing into the forward at half-time during a game at Chelsea.

Salah is one of a number of players who didn’t make it at Stamford Bridge when he was younger, but has returned to the Premier League to rub their faces in it later on in his career.

The Egyptian played 19 times across two seasons with the Blues, scoring twice and assisting four times. That seemingly wasn’t enough, as he was loaned out twice before being sold to Roma.

Former Chelsea midfielder Mikel believes Salah and Kevin De Bruyne – who was at the club during the same period – were unfortunate that the manager at the time, Mourinho, was so hard-nosed, as he recalled a situation in which the manager ripped Salah to pieces.

“They were so unlucky that the boss, Mourinho, then didn’t take any prisoners,” Mikel said on The Obi One Podcast.

“If you weren’t doing your job, it didn’t matter who you were, he would have a go at you.

“He had a go at Mohamed Salah at half-time once and he was in tears crying. We thought ‘OK, he’s going to let him back on the pitch’ but then he destroyed the kid and then pulled him off.”

Mikel doesn’t feel Mourinho would berate a player the way he did Salah now, and while he feels it made some players better, it might not have worked for the winger.

“But that was just his mentality back then but would Mourinho do that now? I think no,” Mikel added.

“He’s become older and more mature and knows how to deal with younger players, and players in general, a lot more now.

“I think that’s just how he got the best out of us then and that’s how we were when we were successful because of how he wanted us to play, train and behave as players.”

While Salah might have been left deflated due to that incident, after leaving Chelsea he got his career right back on track, with a fantastic spell at Roma being followed by a very successful time with Liverpool, where he’s won trophies such as the Premier League and Champions League, as well as scoring just shy of 200 goals.

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