In an alternate universe, arguably the two best players in the Premier League over the last five years in Liverpool's Mohamed Salah and Manchester City's Kevin De Bruyne would be playing in Chelsea blue.
However, both are now the respective talisman for Chelsea's Premier League rivals after hugely disappointing spells in west London. For Salah it was a tough two and half years at Chelsea after joining from Basel in 2014 where he made just 19 appearances.
The Egyptian forward left the club to join AS Roma after a successful loan spell at the Italian side the previous season and just the following campaign signed for Liverpool who splashed £34million on what many believed to be a Premier League flop.
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170 Liverpool goals in five seasons, however, would indicate Salah is comfortably more likely to go down as a Premier League legend as opposed to a flop.
The pathway of De Bruyne is perhaps more frustrating though as according to Piet De Visser, who was a Chelsea scout during Jose Mourinho's second spell at Stamford Bridge, he explained to Dutch outlet VoetbalNieuws that he did everything he could to convince the Portuguese coach to keep De Bruyne.
"I had a battle at Chelsea. I thought he (De Bruyne) was the best in the world at a young age. Chelsea had a top coach in Mourinho. He only called on experienced players. He thought De Bruyne was too young and said 'we can't use yet'."
The Belgian midfielder then received some top-flight experience in the 2012/13 season where he joined Bundesliga club Werder Bremen on-loan, where he racked up 10 goals and nine assists from 33 appearances. But according to De Visser, Mourinho still wasn't keen to play him.
De Visser added: "He comes back and Mourinho says, 'He's playing well, but I can't guarantee him a permanent place'. I stood there and I got furious with Mourinho.
"I said, 'He's your best man. Give him the chances. You don't always have to play him'." In retort though to De Visser's plea Mourinho would simply say 'I'm the boss'.
De Bruyne had no issues proving he would've been more than capable of thriving in Mourinho's team but he, like Salah, after proving his ability in a loan spell, left west London for pastures new
However, just a year later after a brilliant campaign with Wolfsburg, he was back in the Premier League with Manchester City acquiring his services for £55million. Again the fee was deemed ludicrous, but in another case of deja vu, De Bruyne proved he could not only make it at a top team in the Premier League but thrive as well.
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