Chelsea eyeing hijack for Drogba-esque £50m striker

There’s been a lot of noise around Chelsea’s transfer window, and admittedly, Enzo Maresca has found quite the in-tray on his desk upon arriving this summer as the club’s new head coach.

That final phrasing is important: the running of Todd Boehly’s regime means that the Italian’s modus operandi centres around the squad and the tactics – transfers and the more clerical side of the job fall to sporting directors Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart and a host of further office-based employees.

To his credit, Maresca has been candid in his comments regarding the Blues’ bloated first team, saying: “Things can still happen in terms of new signings and outgoings.”

Conor Gallagher has joined Atletico Madrid and further departures are expected before next weekend’s deadline. That said, Chelsea could yet finish a busy summer of spending with a final addition, and centre-forward is the area of concern.

Chelsea eyeing new striker

Much of the chatter regarding No. 9 has circed around a possible swoop for Napoli’s Victor Osimhen, who has been expected to leave during this window for most of the year but is at risk of finding himself marooned away from the market due to his outfit’s insistence that his £111m release clause must be met.

With Romelu Lukaku set to sign for the Serie A side, a pathway might be opened up for the Nigerian’s signing, but it still won’t be an easy deal, and Chelsea must consider an alternative.

Well, that man could arrive in the form of Brentford’s Ivan Toney, who too is awaiting a transfer this summer and has been mooted for a £50m move to the Saudi Pro League’s Al Ahli – albeit with only a £35m offer having arrived so far.

However, according to TEAMtalk, Chelsea are weighing up a hijack for the England international, 28, and have actually contacted their neighbours to determine a possible deal.

Why Toney would be the perfect Osimhen alternative

Toney is understandably tempted by the pull of Saudi Arabia, with the suggestion that Al Ahli have offered him a significant increase on his £20k-per-week salary, with the proposed terms totalling a £325k weekly pay packet – a colossal 1525% rise.

Cut from the cloth of a traditional striker with modified technical skills and an intense work rate, Toney has grown into one of the Premier League’s finest and highest-profile players under Thomas Frank, scoring 36 goals and adding 11 assists across 83 top-flight fixtures.

His manager has praised him for having the “mindset of a lion” and he has proved himself among the finest in the division, with his haul in 2022/23 bettered only by Harry Kane and Erling Haaland.

Toney also boasts an impressive link-up quality that stems from his sharpness in transition, brutish physical presence and dominance during aerial battles – Toney ranks among the top 16% of forwards across Europe’s top five leagues over the past year for aerial duels won per 90 (3.35), as per FBref.

In some ways, his skillset would actually make him a better fit than Napoli’s Osimhen, who is one of the world’s finest finishers but would arrive for over double the cost and has an injury record that leaves something to be desired.

The 26-year-old, who earns £211k per week, has been described as “one of the best strikers in the world” by Manchester City’s Joao Cancelo, posting 76 goals and 18 assists across 133 matches for his team and winning the 2022/23 Serie A title.

However, injuries and Napoli’s staggering decline last season left him frustrated, and he now ranks only among the top 33% of strikers in Europe for non-penalty goals scored per 90.

Class is permanent and there’s no doubt his athleticism and pedigree would leave him in good standing to succeed at Stamford Bridge, but it would be something of a risk for a player that would cost a fee in the same ballpark as Moises Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez.

Toney would be a more than viable alternative, especially as he’s been likened to none other than Didier Drogba.

A “Drogba-esque” striker

In 2021, former Icelandic footballer Hermann Hreidarsson remarked that Toney has a bit of Drogba about him and is even a “world-class” player.

His on-pitch performance over the three years since has hardly dispelled such claims, with Toney’s Brentford teammate Christian Nørgaard claiming: “I heard someone in the changing room comparing Ivan with Didier Drogba. I think he looked a bit like him actually – the way he kept the ball, his first touch and his passes.

“He won every single header and he is a right player.”

Drogba is a Premier League Hall-of-Famer and is widely regarded among Chelsea’s greatest-ever players. Signed from Marseille for £24m in 2004, the Ivorian plundered 250 goal contributions across 381 matches over two spells, notably winning the Champions League and four league titles.

A 6 foot 2 titan of a striker, Drogba was the ultimate big-game player, scoring 12 goals across 17 career cup finals and emerging on the golden side of the tie 11 times.

His influence stretched beyond mere goalscoring, however, using his immense strength and electric bursts of pace to bully defenders, always impressive with his technical quality and ability to pass fluently and maintain pace and gusto in the build-up.

He was, simply, one of the best. He was also 26 years old upon first arriving in west London and took a couple of seasons to really get going as one of the division’s finest.

Toney could emulate Drogba’s illustrious success and then some. He has the skills and he has the tried-and-tested pedigree, with a hunger to perform at the forefront of division too.