Jose had his days out in the sun but;
By the time he got to N17 he had discarded Salah and De Bruyne.
His judgement and tactics were in decline.
A bit like Levy now.
This gets so overblown.
Salah was 22 when he signed for Chelsea. 2 goals in 19 games. Went on loan to Fiorentina. 9 goals in 26 games.
Even when he signed for Roma on loan then permanently, he got 34 in 83 games.
He was not the prolific player we see today.
At Basel before Chelsea he got 12 in 45.
I also don't think Chelsea wanted or needed him, but they needed for us and a few other teams not to have him. Having faced him and Basel, we were definitely sniffing.
De Bruyne signed in 2012 at around 21 from Genk. He stayed there on loan, came back to Chelsea the next season, played friendlies, then went back on loan to Germany. When he came back to Chelsea he got injured in pre-season. He was sold the following January.
Maybe somewhat similar to Manor Solomon, he exploded after that.
All you can really make of it is that Chelsea had a massive squad of talented players. KDB and Salah were both young and inexperienced at that level and you can bet your arse at that moment, there were better players getting the minutes.