Chelsea won't sell this want-away winger to Tottenham

Tottenham have been linked to Mohamed Salah for a while now, but the links have always seemed a bit tenuous. Today, the Standard's Spurs beat writer Tom Collomosse suggests that Spurs really do have an interest in signing the 23-year old Egyptian winger from Chelsea, but that the Blues are unlikely to let him come to White Hart Lane.

We all know Salah – he's the guy who has torched Spurs in the Europa League and contributed to knocking them out of the competition twice: once with Basel, and once this past season while on loan at Fiorentina. He hasn't made enough of an impact on Chelsea's squad to stick around, and while Fiorentina have an option to extend Salah's loan for another season, Salah's apparently considering all options before signing.

Salah would be a fine addition to the squad: a left footed player who has mostly played on the right throughout his career, he can actually play anywhere across the front line and would push both Nacer Chadli and Erik Lamela for a starting position. Spurs and Inter Milan are both interested in him, but Chelsea appears to be unwilling to sell to Spurs as they don't want to strengthen a league rival, especially one that is on the cusp of breaking through to the top four. Chelsea are reportedly asking £12m for Salah, either outright or via a loan with an obligation to buy.

We've written about Salah to Spurs before, and not much has changed in the circumstances around a Salah transfer, except that Salah may not want to return to Fiorentina. Collomosse's reporting on Spurs is generally solid, and so I do believe that Spurs are interested in Salah, but I still don't see Chelsea ever selling him to us if they can offload him to a place like Inter. Which is a shame, because he's quite good. I still just don't see it happening.