This actually is a term used by many opposition fans after CFC being the host of a somewhat invisible display by their strikers. Ofcourse it is not all true. The recent past saw the likes of Drogba and Anelka flourish so well leading the front line, but doubts do arise as to why the players with the caliber of Hernan Crespo, Andriy Shevchenko and Fernando Torres failed to bloom at Stamford Bridge.
Hernan Crespo didn’t have that bad a record to be counted as one of the flops at Chelsea, but the player he was for Argentina, he was one of the best in the business at the time, but he was never at his best for Chelsea.
And when it goes for Andriy and Fernando, they have been regarded as the worst investment of money by the owner. These players were supposedly brought in with the idea of raising Chelsea FC to another level, however, while they failed at delivering their promising history with Chelsea FC, hearts were broken and frustration was seen.
Demba Ba was brought in this January as a rotation partner for the misfiring Torres. And even though he made an excellent ‘Striker’s’ debut, and also good performance after that, he still isn’t the Demba Ba that he was at Newcastle. At Newcastle, he had a comparatively less creative midfielders, and it was all but expected that any striker on form could score goals as per will at Chelsea with the array for talented midfielders behind them. It clearly did not happen, not yet atleast. He went missing on a few occasions too.
So, back to the question, Are we really the Graveyard for Strikers? Is there no striker out there who can fit in with our current squad?
My reply? Utter Garbage!
Every team has a style and if they bring in players of different style, either they take time to adjust and eventually succeed, or else they keep trying till they are deemed unfit for the team. Demba Ba has just started his Chelsea career and this jump from Newcastle’s style of play to Chelsea’s one will take a while to get the best off him. And on the better side, he is scoring goals too, every now and then, that really must take off the pressure off him.
As of Torres, you can write a 1000 page book on what went wrong, but all I’ll say is that he was already damaged and overused by Liverpool, and we were fooled due to some hasty transactions. There were reports already that Liverpool didn’t actually let Torres know the real extend of his knee injuries because they were too reliant on him. And this led to him losing his pace and sharpness. Anyways he was already on a decline towards the end at Liverpool, and his form endured a further dip when he joined Chelsea. The negative media focus on Chelsea FC never failed to point out that. The main reason for this maybe because of the reaction from Liverpool fans all over the world. Some players thrive on hatred and rivalry (Carlos Tevez, Craig Bellamy), some are unaffected by it (Zlatan Ibramovic, Robin Van Persie), and there are some like Torres who act like they are not affected by it, but psychologically the damage is done. Even through the bad spell, Chelsea fans cheered his name over and over till they ended up running out of air, and then Torres became a man who was not only hated by his old club fans, but also his new club fans. And I don’t actually see a turnover in Torres’s form any time sooner, because the damage is far too much on him psychologically. Better take him to a psychiatrist first!
And not to forget, Chelsea FC have also been home to a variety of strikers who any team would had loved to have. Starting with Didier Drogba himself, we had Anelka, Hasselbaink, Gudjohnsen, and ofcourse our beloved Gianfranco Zola, and others from the tip of my mind. These players were so vastly different to each other, yet each of them left their mark at Stamford Bridge among the fans.
My advice to Chelsea FC right now would be to go after a striker not by his name or fame, but according to his style. The kinds of Mario Gomez will find it hard to fit in with us, and then the media won’t shy off from calling us the deathbed again. The current squad needs someone of Aguero and Suarez’s style. I am not insisting that we go out and buy either of them, the wide world of football has so many jewels here and there, and if indeed we are going to replace Torres next season, go for someone who is filled with determination and give them a ‘dream’ of becoming the best, rather than giving a ‘job’ to a player who has made his name already and is now playing only for his bank balance!
Do you think we really are ‘The Striker’s Graveyard’? Or are we just a target of negative media stunts? Leave your thoughts below. I’d love to hear from you.
