Lukaku, Torres, Shevchenko Among 6 Sensational Strikers Who Struggled At Premier League Club Chelsea

Lukaku, Torres, Shevchenko Among 6 Sensational Strikers Who Struggled At Premier League Club Chelsea

Chukwu Ikechukwu
updated at April 12, 2023 at 7:54 PM
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  • An alarming number of top-level strikers have failed to make the grade at Chelsea and have ended up leaving the club
  • Didier Drogba and Diego Costa are just two out of many strikers who have left Stamford Bridge with their reputations intact
  • Chelsea's strikers have had about as much of a shelf life as their managers

Playing as a striker for Chelsea can be termed an extreme sport because not only are you playing for a team desperate to win titles every season, you are also being judged by one of the harshest football fanbases in the world.

Lukaku, Torres, Shevchenko among 6 sensational strikers ruined by Premier League club Chelsea
Torres played a key part in the club's Champions League and Europa League triumphs in 2012 and 2013. Photo by Ben Stansall
Source: Getty Images

Chelsea have been known to splash the cash to bring in top signings into the club since the emergence of Roman Abrahamovic as its owner and this has seen some notable strikers in world football dawn the Blue jersey for the London club.

In 2003, Russian businessman and politician Roman Abrahamovic purchased Premier League club Chelsea and then spent heavily on signing new players.

Fernando Torres, Alvaro Morata, Andriy Shenchenko, Timo Werner, Mateja Kezman, and Adrian Mutu are just six examples of strikers who had blistering careers before switching to Chelsea but found it difficult to replicate that deadly form for the London club.

Torres and Werner both won the Champions League with the Blues but are not considered cult heroes for the Blues.

Chelsea paid £50million for Torres in January 2011 in what was a club record but the Spaniard waited until April to net his first goal for the club and a series of glaring misses haunted him for the next season-and-a-half.

Timo Werner currently still with the Blues was in sparkling form for RB Leipzig of but has struggled to shine for Chelsea with the German scoring just seven league goals in his Chelsea career so far.

For Andriy Shevchenko, the Ukranian was a world renowned striker playing for AC Milan but fell under the shadow of Dider Drogba at the Bridge before being loaned back to Italy.

Alvaro Morata is another striker who also felt the heat from the Blues fans after signing from Real Madrid in 2017 but failed to hit top form before eventually offloaded.

Mateja Kezman and Adrian Mutu both started the new revelation under Roman Abrahamovic but struggled to adapt to English football as the latter was later sacked by Chelsea for drug abuse.

With that being said, here are nine massive stars who nearly joined Chelsea during Abramovich's early years.

1. Fernando Torres

2. Timo Werner

3. Andriy Shevchenko

4. Alvaro Morata

5. Mateja Kezman

6. Adrian Mutu

Asides from Ivorian Didier Drogba and probably in more recent times Diego Costa who have been successful with the Blues, Chelsea fans have not had it great with their forwards even when they were signed with a huge load of expectations.

Ronaldinho, Raul Among 8 Big Transfers Chelsea Missed During Abramovich’s Early Years

Earlier Sportsbrief reported Russian businessman and politician Roman Abrahamovic purchased Premier League club Chelsea and then spent heavily on signing new players.

Abramovic splashed huge cash in landing stars as he chased some of the biggest players in world football but narrowly missed out on some.

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Chukwu Ikechukwu photo
Chukwu Ikechukwu
Chukwu Ikechukwu Godwin is a journalist with over 9 years of experience in the Nigerian media industry. He has worked both in Radio (Today FM, Rhythm FM, Wish FM) and Television (Silverbird TV) as a Sports Analyst..
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