Simply down to off-field problems with his wife not happy living in London.The main theme there is they've taken a lot of hopeful punts on declining stars who were already physically past their best - Eto'o, Weah, Torres, Shevchenko, Falcao, Higuain, Pato. They've spunked a lot of wages which they can well afford, but I imagine signing these players at their peaks would have yielded much different results.
And to be fair to Crespo he was very good at Chelsea when he got on the park. His goals-to-minutes ratio is in the top 10 in Premier League history. I don't think he was a great tactical fit for the way Chelsea played at the time, where they relied heavily on Drogba's back-to-goal hold-up play to bring in the midfield runners.
Eto'o was past it and everyone knew itSheva, Torres, Eto'o and Crespo were all past their primes when they joined to be fair. The rest of them weren't top strikers or were just young players so hard to call them failures
I'm sending my CV over as we speakIt's the best job in football. A few months work and then you get £20 million.
Drogba was alright tbf...
Mutu was my favourite. They spent about 20m (in 2003, so probably like 60m now) on him & then sacked him a year later
You should see how many I have on the Chelsea forum I frequent!
And 90% of my posts are about Chelsea (the other 10% seem to be me moaning about self service tills).
Pedro, Crespo, Ba, Eto'o and Remy weren't flops.
Would you say you get a more balanced and fair discussion here (about Chelsea) than on a Chelsea forum? Just curious.
Fewer people wumming about Chelsea on the Chelsea site but a lot more people getting defensive and arguing.
I think the vast majority of people on here don't give much of a shit about Chelsea but there's a few who have a real bee in their bonnet.
Fewer people wumming about Chelsea on the Chelsea site but a lot more people getting defensive and arguing.
I think the vast majority of people on here don't give much of a shit about Chelsea but there's a few who have a real bee in their bonnet.
surely that's to be expected
What is the theme with these strikers? Incredible mental strength/self belief. I believe there is something in that tbh.Drogba, Anelka, Diego Costa were all great there.
Sheva - top 5 in the world at the time of the signing. Broken shell after like 5 months. Again, what the feck do they do to strikers at chelsea?!?! Is it something in the water???
Higuain - Hoped he'd be better than he wasRoll up, roll up and welcome to @Dante's Chelsea Striker Graveyard Extravaganza featuring the utterly fantastic...
Higuain, Morata, Pedro, Falcao, Remy, Salah, Eto'o, Ba, Lukaku, Torres, Sturridge, Di Santo, Shevchenko, Kezman, Crespo, Mutu, Pato, Pizzaro, Batshuayi
There's a serious theme behind this. What's going wrong and why does Timo Werner look set to join the plot?
*removed Anelka having forgot to do so initially.
And Sturridge under Ancelotti was mainly a right winger, cutting inside. For 4m, hes not a flop really. Made 8m on him, too!Yep.
We have signed a ton of dreadful flop strikers but the likes of Eto'o, Crespo, Pedro, Ba, Anelka and Sturridge don't fit.
If Tore Andre Flo and Eidur Guðjohnsen was signed during Abramovich's era, they would have entered that list. They were good strikers though, but Abramovich demands a very high standards to put pressures on every strikers that he signed.
Higuain - Hoped he'd be better than he was
Morata - started well but i think the injury did him in
Falcao - flop. Also a flop for Utd
Pedro - Wtf is he doing in that list. Not a striker and by no means a bad signing, at all
Remy - Was never fussed myself
Salah Lukaku - Dont think they can be included, werent flops, just not used by respective managers
Eto'o - I actually didnt mind him
Ba - Backup striker, even 3rd choice occasionally so dont see how for £7m he's a flop
Torres - Enough said
Shevchenko - As above, sadly
Sturridge - Used primarily as a right winger with us
Di Santo - No idea why he is in this list, was a youth signing who only played 8 games mainly from the bench. You might aswell include every single youth striker signed if Di Santo is being included.
Crespo - Not a flop. 20 goals in 49 league games. This myth he was a flop is quite mental. Wanted to go home, but has since said he regrets leaving. Comfortably one of the best finishers i have seen at the club
Mutu - His own fault, not the club
Pato - weird signing
Batshuayi - Cant work him out. He's obviously a decent striker he has shown glimpses with us, and in France. And Dortmund
Pizarro - shite
That ship sailed a long time ago.
Yeh I wish Crespo had stayed, but 20 league goals in 49 games just isnt a flop. That's not a million miles away from a goal every 2 games. And lest we forget he 'only' cost £16m. I think he gets included on these lists as people incorrectly believe he was another Torres or Sheva. The player himself has stated he regrets leaving, I'd have loved to see how he'd done if played regularly throughout his stayYeah heck of alot of dross in that list. You also forgot Kezman. Why do you think they seem to struggle?
Crazy that Crespo spent 3 or 5 years at the club out on loan.
I think it was family issues with him. He has since stated he wished he'd stayed. £16m and 20 league goals in 49 league games is a good return. I think his goals to minutes ratio is amongst some of the best in premier league history, or not far off. He was a incredible finisher. Would have loved him to stay, but for the price, his goals return was fineWhilst the list probably does embellish the situation I feel the fact remains that Chelsea have bought a lot of strikers under Ambramovich and only 2 have been really successful and spearheaded the club to titles Drogba (under Mourinho and then Ancelotti) and Costa (Mourinho and then Conte)
The likes of Shevchenko, Torres and Morata were obviously bought to do similar and flopped badly, then you have those who were bought to be backup or just part of the squad Anelka, Giroud, Ba, Remy etc etc who either exceeded in that role and regularly played their way into the starting XI, performed it or struggled
On Crespo it seems a similar situation to when some United fans say Veron wasn't a flop, I personally loved Veron but then even I can see that you don't pay that amount of money for a player who you sell 2 years later if he's been a success and so yeah Crespo 100% does have a place on the 'another that didn't work out list'
What all this does point out though is the poor recruitment; how old was Shevchenko when he went to Chelsea? Late twenties? It's a risk buying someone at that age from the Italian league given how much slower the football was back then. All was not right with Torres at Liverpool before Chelsea signed him. Morata an expensive punt on a player never deemed good enough for Real Madrid (one we were looking at signing before we got a just a big a flop in Lukaku)