Jose Mourinho says Chelsea managed to quickly overtake Liverpool after ‘starting from zero’ in the race for Mohamed Salah.
Blues boss Mourinho targeted the Basel star, 21, after Juan Mata’s sale to Manchester United was sanctioned.
Liverpool had been working on a deal to sign Salah and Brendan Rodgers was hopeful of taking him to Anfield before Chelsea made their move.
Mourinho explained: “It was a surprise for us that Juan was leaving . We were not ready to make a bid for a player or replace Juan in the squad, so everything happened very, very fast.
“We had to work and look at options for us. Then we decided to go for Salah and we started from zero, because we’d had no contact with the club or with the player. We didn’t even know who the player’s agent was – we knew absolutely nothing.
“We had to start. The first step was an agreement with the club. We contacted Basel before we went to the player and we asked them if the player was available to negotiate and they said ‘yes’ so we reached an agreement with Basel.
“That is now done – we have an agreement with the club, subject to a medical and subject to the player’s desire to join us.”
Liverpool manager Rodgers appeared to suggest on Friday that he had not given up all hope of signing Salah, and Mourinho later admitted it was not foregone conclusion that the Egyptian will complete a move to Stamford Bridge.
But the Portuguese is confident the transfer will go through after Salah undergoes a medical in Switzerland over the weekend.
“We know he wants to join. He is happy his club has an agreement with Chelsea and is happy to come,” Mourinho said.
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This post was last modified on 26/01/2014
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We need a good left back and a defencive midfield.
@ mike:
Gerald (Asamoah?) does NOT play for Liverpool F.C.! No need to worry about him then.
Liverpool are a joke in the transfer window
Its a serious learning point we have been identifying players for other teams who make quick decisions, erickson, wiiliams etc are good examples, please infuture lets identify good players and move fast to seal the deals, we have seriuos gaps in midfield (Lucas "injury" & Gerald) and defence, Aston Villa's match was a perfect example of our weakness in defence & midfield.