Why would Chelsea want to re-sign Didier Drogba?
Is a Chelsea legend set to return to Stamford Bridge?
According to rumors PST's Nick Mendola rounded up on Sunday , Didier Drogba is close to signing a one-year deal at Chelsea.
Drogba, 36, left Galatasaray at the end of last season and has been without a club since returning from the World Cup with the Ivory Coast.
Ask yourself this question: is returning to the club where you had unheralded success and are deemed as a legend and a hero really a good idea for a swansong?
It's a tricky one.
At the moment Chelsea have Diego Costa as their main man up top, while Romelu Lukaku is still theirs but is almost certain to go out on loan once again this season. As for last seasons attackers, both Samuel Eto'o and Demba Ba have moved on and only Fernando Torres is left to battle it out with Costa. So, Chelsea does lack depth in the center forwards role.
Drogba last played for Chelsea in 2012. His final kick in a Chelsea shirt was the winning penalty kick in the UEFA Champions League final victory against Bayern Munich to seal the Blues' first-ever European Cup. Yeah, it doesn't get much better than that. During his first spell with the West London side Drogba won that UCL crown, three Premier League titles, four FA Cups, three League Cups and countless individual accolades.
Drogba also scored 157 goals in 341 games for Chelsea, so there's that…
We know Blues boss Jose Mourinho loves Drogba and vice versa, see these quotes from when Chelsea met Galatasaray in the UEFA Champions League last season, and many thought the Ivorian striker would return to Stamford Bridge as part of Mourinho's backroom staff one day. But as a player?
He would be relatively cheap, be a good option off the bench for the Blues and get to integrate himself back into the Chelsea squad before potentially becoming a coach for the Premier League outfit. However with the Blues offloading Ashley Cole and Frank Lampard this summer due to concerns over their age, is offering a blast from the past a one-year deal really what Mourinho wants to do after he repeatedly referred to his squad as 'the kids' last season? It would certainly be against what he seems to be building at Chelsea, however with John Terry on board and Drogba potentially returning there would be two model professionals to learn from.
Chelsea could certainly do a lot worse than getting Drogba back on board to add some depth to their stable of forwards, plus helping their talented young attackers develop.
_NBCSports