Chelsea: 5 Reasons Selling Juan Mata To Man Utd Is A Terrible Deal

1. Mohamed Salah Is A Poor Choice Of Replacement

This is not to say Mohamed Salah, set to sign with the Blues for £11m from Basel, is a bad player, or even one who won't be a success at the club. He was the outstanding performer in each of the four recent occasions when Chelsea have played the Swiss side, who claimed victory from both encounters in this year's Champions' League group stage. The point is that after selling a player as reliably outstanding as Juan Mata, particularly in the middle of the season, it would have been reassuring to know the club did it because they had a similar or greater talent lined up to replace him and take the club to new heights. I'm sorry, Mohamed, but from all available evidence, you do not (yet) fulfil the criteria. It's unfortunately clear that Salah is being signed to take Mata's place on the bench, and perhaps to annoy Liverpool, who were also bidding for his services. For all Salah's skill, he is (again) a very similar player to those we already have in his position at the club. Were there some aspect of his game differentiating him from Hazard, Schurrle or Willian, or some area where he was noticeably stronger, that would be one thing, but he offers much the same only without the experience of playing week-to-week in a highly competitive league. Willian turned out well enough, but was older and had been toughened up by years in the physically demanding Russian and Ukrainian leagues. The step up from the Swiss Super League to the English Premier League is enormous, and while Salah's performances in Europe have shown promise, Mourinho would be a foolhardy man to have signed him with the expectation of slotting him straight into Chelsea's first eleven. The most pressing question is that if Mourinho didn't see Mata as his type of player and was looking for a diminutive but hard-working winger to sit on the bench instead, why he didn't shop the Spaniard around to foreign clubs last summer, when his value would have been highest, and keep hold of Victor Moses? Moses is much more of a Mourinho-type player than Salah, with greater physical strength and a willingness to track back. For everyone parroting the line about Mata being sold due to his defensive shortcomings, the acquisition of Salah is even more confusing, as the Egyptian has never shown the faintest bit of interest in anything approaching defensive work. So, have Chelsea Bluth'd this deal up, or do you trust Mourinho's judgment without a second thought? Does the loss of Mata matter if Chelsea win the league this year, or do you fear the Spaniard's potential for saving United's season and giving us much bigger challenges further down the line? Having just solved one shortcoming in their squad, are the Blues needlessly creating another? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!