The summer of 2014 marked the beginning of Mohamed Salah’s first full season at Chelsea after joining from FC Basel the previous winter. However, he had been an outcast in a Chelsea squad packed with stars, and didn’t have much of a chance to get involved. When Salah was called upon this season, which wasn’t often, he was quite unimpressive to say the least. With Chelsea’s interest in Fiorentina’s Juan Cuadrado (who shares the same position as Salah), the two were swapped, with the Colombian coming to England permanently and the Egyptian moving to Italy on a six month loan.
Mohamed Salah’s temporary relocation to Florence has seemed to have brought him new life and a breath of fresh air. La Viola has allowed him the freedom to play his football with no boundaries, and he has been reaping the rewards of Italy’s contrasting style of play in regards to England’s physical, fast paced, and intense qualities.
His first full start for the club resulted in both a goal and an assist. Salah’s hot introduction began to take off after he put the nail in the coffin against Tottenham, guiding Fiorentina into the Europa League round-of-sixteen. The “Egyptian Messi” followed that up with a match-winner in Milan and a brilliant brace against reigning champions Juventus last night, highlighted by a scintillating one man counterattack that showed off his electrifying pace.
Is his success due to Serie A being a ‘lesser league’? Could Salah’s new coach Vicenzo Montella’s managerial style be influencing his play almost immediately? It could be a number of reasons, who knows. But one thing’s for sure: his overwhelming 180 of both playing time and performance since leaving Chelsea on loan has raised eyebrows on the faces of many football fans alike.
The numbers don’t lie – he’s been absolutely sensational. (Via WhoScored)
So what does this mean for the Egyptian going forward, and what does it mean for Chelsea? He’s only played six matches in Italy, and there are still months to go before he returns to London next June. For the sake of argument, let’s say that his good form continues throughout the rest of the season. When he joins back up with Chelsea, he’ll surely demand more playing time. But in a squad consisting of Eden Hazard (who plays ninety minutes almost every match), Oscar/Fàbregas who fill the number ten role, and Willian/Cuadrado (who now constantly battle for the right wing spot), where does Salah fit in? The answer is simple: he doesn’t.
This is where the alternative way of interpreting the situation comes into play. The way I see it, there are two ways of envisioning Mohamed’s future: Salah has hit form, and will eventually become one of the world’s best for Chelsea. The other view? Money.
It’s been a trend at Stamford Bridge in recent years: buy a young player with plenty of promise for cheap, loan him out a few times, see if he’ll eventually fit in with the first team, and if he doesn’t – sell him for big.
Kevin De Bruyne immediately springs to mind as a prime example of this epidemic within Chelsea Football Club. He arrived in January 2012 for just £6.7 million from Belgian side KRC Genk, and was loaned out to Werder Bremen for the rest of that season and for the 12/13 season. When he came back to Chelsea in the summer of 2013, he was used sparingly by Mourinho; it was clear that De Bruyne wasn’t in the Portuguese’s plans. By January, he was sold to Wolfsburg for nearly £18 million, over twice as much as what was originally spent to acquire him.
The problem with this method is that Chelsea are missing out on players who could potentially be world class; De Bruyne is 23 years old and is having a field day in the Bundesliga this season. But if De Bruyne didn’t fit into Mourinho’s plans, Chelsea made a profit off of him, and still won trophies in the near future, it’s hard to argue whether this method is effective or not – but that’s a discussion for another time.
Mohamed Salah’s fate could be similar to his Belgian counterpart. He joined the Blues for £11 million plus add-ons, and the better he plays while in Italy, the further his price tag will rise. If the Egyptian has as good of an end to his loan spell with Fiorentina as he’s started, and if Chelsea can get at least £25 million for him, he could be off in the summer. All we can do is monitor his progress and see what happens!
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