By Kris Voakes
As the January transfer window drifted towards its close, Serie A finally seemed to have been presented with a serious contender for Champions League football beyond Juventus, Roma and Napoli.
While Lazio had flirted with the top three spots in the first half of the campaign, few credited any team with the quality or depth necessary to alter the line-up from last season’s final podium. That was until Inter provided a real statement of intent in the winter market.
Xherdan Shaqiri, Marcelo Brozovic, Davide Santon and Lukas Podolski all came in as Roberto Mancini was backed by the board to launch a long-awaited bid for a Champions League spot. It was meant to be the Nerazzurri who would emerge from the pack to give Napoli a real run for their money.
Over at Fiorentina, meanwhile, the loss of Juan Cuadrado was seen by some as the greatest piece of evidence that Vincenzo Montella’s side had nothing to offer in the race for third. The Colombian’s lack of form in 2014-15 was largely overlooked, and his mere quality and presence regarded more highly, both by Chelsea in splashing out €33 million for his signature and by pundits judging the Viola’s hopes of improving.
But in taking Mohamed Salah from the Blues in part-exchange for Cuadrado, the Florence outfit pulled off an absolute masterstroke. On Sunday he scored the only goal as Fiorentina ended a 14-game away losing streak against Inter, following up with a fierce finish after Samir Handanovic had parried Manuel Pasqual’s drilled cross-shot.
Just six games into his career in Italy, the Egyptian has already struck four goals – all of great significance – and ensured that Napoli and Lazio’s reasonable recent runs have failed to shake the Viola from their coat-tails.
Overlooked and underused at Chelsea, Salah has been given a new lease of life under Montella. And while the player has benefited from being shown the kind of faith Jose Mourinho never seemed to have in him, the club have reaped the rewards from having an attacking midfielder whose confidence is sky high and attention is very much fixed on the job in hand.
Whereas Cuadrado looked as though his mind was on a January move for long spells of the opening half of the season, Salah couldn’t look more concentrated and has made a huge impact as a result. After grabbing the opener against both Torino and Sassuolo, he also netted the killer second goal in Thursday’s Europa League win over Tottenham.
The winner at San Siro was probably his biggest yet though, coming just 13 minutes after replacing the injured Kouma Babacar in the forward department. Having played for 90 minutes on Thursday, he could have been forgiven for flagging near the end, but as his side held on with just nine men due to injury he was the man showing the most willingness to stretch himself.
The early signs suggest that not only did Fiorentina deal better in January – also bringing in wily attackers Alessandro Diamanti and Alberto Gilardino – but they also were clear winners in the Cuadrado/Salah deal.
“Who did better out of the Cuadrado exchange?” pondered Montella after Salah’s goal against Tottenham. “Fiorentina earned a lot of money and, on the pitch, they are similar players.”
Right now, there is no similarity between the two. Salah is streets ahead, and threatening only to get better.
Fiorentina are still very much in the Champions League race and with Salah in such hot form Napoli and Lazio cannot rest on their laurels.
