Former Chelsea captain Terry believes that Salah and De Bruyne failed to adapt to Chelsea's "rigorous" training during their time at Stamford Bridge. He said that the two players were "not ready" to play for the Blues. De Bru...
Former Chelsea captain Terry believes that Salah and De Bruyne failed to adapt to Chelsea's "rigorous" training during their time at Stamford Bridge. He said that the two players were "not ready" to play for the Blues.
De Bruyne officially joined the Chelsea first team in the summer of 2013, while Salah joined six months later. However, by then De Bruyne had already moved to Wolfsburg, while Salah stayed under Mourinho for 12 months before eventually moving to Roma.
The two later returned to the Premier League, joining Manchester City and Liverpool respectively, and became superstars and business cards in the Premier League, sweeping all opponents, including Chelsea.
However, without foresight, there were few signs that these two skinny talents would be able to achieve such brilliant success in the future.
Terry was captain of the team when both players joined Chelsea, and he was not satisfied with either of them. "De Bruyne came, Salah came and they became absolutely world-class players, very good players. But when they came to Chelsea they were not ready to integrate into the group," Terry said on his former team-mate John Obi Mikel's Obi One podcast.
"They showed some talent in training, but I have to say that the level of training at Chelsea was one of the highest I have ever seen."
"You know, a lot of good and experienced players couldn't understand and adapt to this kind of training. It can be said that Chelsea's training intensity is very high and very strict."
When De Bruyne joined the Blues, Chelsea had just won the first Champions League in the club's history and won the Europa League in 2013. Salah's first season at Chelsea was a rare trophyless season (2013-14), but Mourinho's team still reached the Champions League semi-finals and finished third in the Premier League.
The following year, Chelsea easily won the Premier League championship. Then Salah achieved great success in Liverpool and De Bruyne in Manchester City.
Salah came to Liverpool with the determination to prove himself
Shortly after moving to Anfield in 2018, Salah once revealed that the experience at Chelsea inspired him to become a better player after returning to England: "I didn't get a chance at Chelsea, and then I returned to the Premier League. I want to show everyone my football."
This shows that without that failure experience at Chelsea, Salah may not have such a brilliant career in Liverpool.
Comparison of Salah and De Bruyne's statistics on Chelsea
Salah played 19 times for Chelsea and helped Chelsea score 2 goals; he played against Chelsea 25 times and scored 8 times against Chelsea.
De Bruyne played 9 times for Chelsea and helped Chelsea score 0 goals; he played against Chelsea 22 times and scored 5 times against Chelsea.
