Mohamed Salah to go in Janaury?

Over the course of the last year or so, the London Evening Standard seems to have moved from best ignored status all the way up to reasonably trustworthy, at least where Chelsea are concerned. And so when they come up with a transfer rumour involving us -- especially one that makes a great deal of sense -- it's probably worth paying attention to. Which ... well, bad news, Mohamed Salah fans.

According to Tom Collomose, the Blues are looking at letting the Egyptian winger, signed in January from Basel, leave this winter after failing to make any sort of impact on the first team squad. Jose Mourinho has criticised his play publicly (and, supposedly, in private too), and even when given chances this year Salah has failed to do much of anything.

Salah would apparently be interested in securing first team football, and he's good enough to contribute for most teams, and if a side like Inter Milan wants to snag him this winter we shouldn't be too shocked to see him leave. He's an interesting prospect, but he has his career to think about, and Chelsea aren't going to stand in his way if he thinks he'll be better off elsewhere.

One would suspect, however, that Salah leaving would then rule out any departure for André Schürrle -- we'd be left very light in attacking midfield with both gone, and any quality replacements would probably be cup-tied in the Champions League.