Chelsea’s biggest move in the Transfer Market ‘2015 has been getting Radamel Falcao on loan. I don’t know if I should be happy about this move or not. We have seen a lot of strikers come and fail at Stamford Bridge. Diego Costa was a happy exception to the rule, but Falcao comes to Chelsea at a time when he’s low on confidence and is still recovering from a serious injury.
Chelsea have agreed terms with Monaco for the season-long loan of Radamel Falcao http://t.co/GM9QSLUVVn pic.twitter.com/sLA9yiIejH
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) July 3, 2015
Most of the Chelsea fans aren’t happy with this announcement. The skepticism is justified given the fact that Falcao has been very ordinary since his return from ACL. He scored just 4 goals last season for Manchester United and was even made to play with the U-21 team! That is such a fall from grace for a man who was the most feared striker in Europe and was on Real Madrid’s radar.
Very happy to join Chelsea and help us look to retain the league title and be successful in Europe. https://t.co/AiFYKLZiHJ
— Radamel Falcao (@FALCAO) July 3, 2015
Falcao played against Chelsea in the 2012 UEFA Super Cup where he completely destroyed Chelsea defense. I think Chelsea had been scouting Falcao’s ex-teammate from Porto – Hulk – and this was the match that made us realize if we had been going for the wrong Porto striker.
Remind yourself of what @FALCAO is capable of by watching this great finish v Chelsea: https://t.co/UtQX0FySFE #UCL pic.twitter.com/wFl2gSkRVh
— Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) July 3, 2015
Summer of 2013 is when the interest in Falcao was at a peak after a very successful season at Atletico Madrid. There were rumors of Real Madrid being interested, but since Falcao was at Atletico Madrid the move was complicated. I guess Chelsea too were interested, but Falcao ended up at Monaco. Was it for money? Was it because of third-party sponsorship? I don’t know. But 2013 Falcao is the one I dreamt of in my team.
Here is Radamel Falcao's record at European clubs. Will he be a hit at Chelsea? #SSNHQ pic.twitter.com/ff8RoLbJtD
— Sky Sports News HQ (@SkySportsNewsHQ) July 3, 2015
Since then Falcao has been through ACL and the terrible season at Manchester United.
It was a tall claim by Jose Mourinho that he can coax the goals out of Falcao when he has failed with strikers such as Shevchenko and Torres. Mourinho thinks van Gaal did not play to Falcao’s strength. There’s also suggestion that it takes about an year to recover from ACL and that now is when Falcao should start getting his mojo back.
But the simple truth is that 2 years ago Costa was Falcao’s side-kick and now Falcao has joined Chelsea as Costa’s side-kick to revive his future. Can they play together? Definitely, they have done that in the past. But will they? I don’t really think so:
- Mourinho has finally settled on the 4-2-5-1 formation and so far there’s no indication that Chelsea will line up any different in the coming season.
- Costa won’t be thrilled about playing on the wing and letting Falcao start in the center. Costa has won the #9 position for himself after a lot of effort and I don’t see him giving it up for his former teammate.
- Falcao seems to be a cover buy for Costa, who is really injury-prone.
- Jose might bring on Falcao for Willian for the final quarter when on level or winning by just a single point. I believe Costa will move out wide in this case with Falcao as the main striker.
Chelsea signing Falcao on loan is interesting. Mourinho clearly using him for cover, he'll certainly be behind Costa, possibly even Remy.
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) July 3, 2015
Personally I have still not been able to make up my mind regarding this transfer. I don’t think Falcao will ever be the feared striker he was at Porto and Atletico. But I still have hope.
- I think he’ll get as much time as needed to recover from his injury.
- Effectively he is replacing Drogba in team. While he cannot match Drogba for his passion and beastly never-say-die attitude he should at least match Drogba for the number of goals scored easily.
- This seems like a short-gap solution to Chelsea’s next long-term striker. Bamford and Solanke have some more time to prove themselves without worrying about a young prospect robbing them of their chance.
I welcome Falcao to the Chelsea family, albeit a couple of years late. I hope he has more fun and success than he had at Manchester United and that he wins at least some medals with Chelsea (it would be shame if he didn’t any given as Torres has won so many without doing much). Let’s see how this new adventure goes by.