Aston Villa No2 John Terry has defended Jose Mourinho over his decision at Chelsea to let Kevin de Bruyne and Mohamed Salah leave.

Now Tottenham manager, Mourinho was in charge at Stamford Bridge when Liverpool striker Salah left, along with Manchester City star De Bruyne.

But Terry told Dubai Eye Radio: "In my generation now I see people like Salah and Kevin De Bruyne come through and not being able to match his standards at the time," the current Aston Villa assistant manager told Dubai Eye radio .

"Now they were very talented but very young individuals as well. But Mourinho didn't have time to put them in the team or take out a Duff or Robben because we was winning every single week and his job is on the line.

"So, like I said before if you come in and you are 10 or 20 per cent below the standard of Duff and Robben who were scoring 20 goals a season each. You are not gonna make that team, no chance.

"Fair play to them they've gone away elsewhere and proved they're good enough but at that present time they wasn't good enough for Chelsea."