WHY SAY ANYTHING?

Manchester City will end this season as Premier League champions. They have been far and away the stand-out team in the division since day one and will, deservedly, be confirmed as winners, possibly as soon as when they play Manchester United at The Etihad in April.

Is that rubbing salt into United wounds? Not really, City are bound to be crowned champions at some stage and does it really make a difference against which team they are playing when it happens? Absolutely not.

What must be more annoying, particularly for José Mourinho, is that one of the main reasons City have been so good this season is the form of one of his Chelsea cast-offs!

Kevin De Bruyne has been the best player, not only for City, but in the entire Premier League this season and, at 26, will probably get better still for another couple of three or four years.

So why did Mourinho allow him to leave Chelsea? Well, apparently, the Portuguese didn’t think that De Bruyne had the right attitude to play for the club. He thought that the Belgian wasn’t a “win at all costs” type of player and was, therefore, not the right fit for his team.

Manchester City supporters have never questioned Mourinho’s character assessment ability since! What a buy he has turned out to be, despite the “experts” at Sky writing him off before he had even kicked a ball for City. This is what they had to say.

Liverpool, if United continue their decidedly dodgy away form, could quite possibly nick second place by the end of the season. They just have to ensure that their own dodgy form, which can occur both home and away, is eradicated as it seemed to be when beating Southampton.

Whether they finish second or third however, they will have a lot to thank the “Egyptian Messi” for as he has been their most consistent scorer since the start of the campaign.

You may be unsurprised to learn that he was signed by Chelsea whilst guess-who was manager?

José Mourinho had, apparently, made room in his squad by selling Kevin De Bruyne and fans-favourite Juan Mata but still had Eden Hazard, Ramires, Willian, Oscar and Andre Schürrle ahead of Salah.

When the Egyptian failed to sparkle on the rare occasions he was given an opportunity it was evident that his stay in London wouldn’t be a long one. He was sent out on loan to Fiorentina and then bought by Roma before returning to the premier League with Liverpool.

The rest, as they say, is history and another Mourinho signing is starring for a rival.

There have been two players he sold while at Chelsea whereby Mourinho himself has become the beneficiary due to circumstances beyond his control.

When he took over as manager of Manchester United he renewed his acquaintance with Juan Mata, who he had sold to what was then David Moyes’ team.

Many people, possibly including Mata, thought that the Spaniard would be sold again as he was rhought not to fit in with Mourinho’s way of thinking but it didn’t happen and Mata is now an integral part of the squad and has just signed a new contract.

Also, Mourinho has been at pains to point out that he never wanted to sell Mata while at Chelsea, it was, in fact, Mata who wanted to leave. Whatever the reason, it all seems to be water under the bridge now.

And finally…..

Romelu Lukaku, another who struggled for game time while at Chelsea under Mourinho became a Manchester United player during the summer transfer window.

In buying a player he previously didn’t appear to rate highly his judgement was, yet again, called into question.

His response this time had more than a ring of truth to it.

Lukaku had grown up since leaving Stamford Bridge and had become a player Mourinho could trust to follow orders. He was now prepared to track back and put in the work which he thought was unnecessary as a teenage striker.

He is undoubtedly a better player than he was at Chelsea and, at 24 years of age, should only get better. We will just have to wait and see how his career develops now he is back with the one who sold him.

(In the recent past Chelsea have also sold Petr Čech to Arsenal and and Nemanja Matić to Manchester United. Both moves have been strongly criticised by fans)