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This one happened in a hurry. Chelsea have confirmed that they have reached an agreement with FC Basel for the transfer of 21-year-old winger Mohamed Salah, a day after we started being linked with the Egyptian. The deal's not official -- it's pending a medical and agreeing personal terms, but it's now so far along it's more or less inevitable.
Part of the fun of this deal is pipping Liverpool to a transfer target; but beyond that Salah's a good player who torched us during the group stages, and he's clearly an exciting prospect who we're lucky to have on the team (Steve profiled him here). But as a response to the impending Juan Mata sale, which is a big part of the context here, bringing in Salah is fairly underwhelming. He's a major downgrade on the bench, and we could have done that pretty easily without spending any money.
And now we brace ourselves for the real transfer story being finalised. Sigh.
