The Chelsea FC Loan Report, Part 1: The Chelsea Expendables
1. Mohamed Salah
Mohamed Salah (full name Mohamed Salah Ghaly) is a 23-year-old attacking midfielder, who is predominately left footed. The Egyptian has fantastic pace and is very direct in his style of play, often running purposely at an opponent, relying on his skill and speed to get past his man.
Salah was signed by Chelsea in the 2013-14 winter transfer window on the 26th of January, for fee of £11m. The winger first came to Chelsea’s attention during the 2012-13 season when, during the two legged semi final of the Europa League, Salah scored a very impressive goal at Stamford Bridge. The following season Salah repeated and exceeded the same trick, scoring in both group games in the Champions League, which saw FC Basel beat Chelsea in both ties.
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Applying the ‘if you can’t beat them, join them’ notion literally, Chelsea signed Salah a mere 2 months after he had been our destroyer. Jose Mourinho himself confirmed this stance by saying: “First of all, he won’t score against Chelsea – which is a good thing”.
Upon signing for the London club, Salah had this to say about his move:
"I’m very happy to sign for Chelsea. I hope I can make the Chelsea supporters happy and have a good career at the club for many years."
In the year that followed Salah’s move to Stamford Bridge, the young winger only managed to play in 13 games for club, 7 of which came from the substitutes bench. He scored only 2 goals in the process. Unfortunately he didn’t make Chelsea supporters happy, as he had wished.
Unfortunately he didn’t make Chelsea supporters happy, as he had wished
Consequentially, it was no surprise that Chelsea loaned Salah to Fiorentina on transfer deadline day of the 2014-15 winter transfer window.
For the remainder of last season Salah played great football for the Italian club, scoring 6 goals and assisting 3 in 13 appearances. For fans of Fiorentina, Chelsea and Salah himself, it was great to see the spark back in his play.
After his successful spell in Florence, the Egyptian returned to Chelsea full of confidence and there was a lot of hope amongst Chelsea fans that we would benefit greatly from his newly found form.
Alas, after a turbulent Summer in which senior officials at both Fiorentina and Inter Milan were threatening and counter threatening legal action as to who could sign the player, it was Roma who swooped on the 6th of August to take the player back to Italy. The transfer was officially confirmed to be a 12 month loan and included the option to make the deal permanent.
Next: Chelsea Expendable No. 2: Juan Cuadrado