Why Roman should break the bank to get Sanchez this summer!

I don’t know who felt the greatest relief on Saturday after Fernando Torres scored his first goal for Chelsea, the fans or the player himself? Stamford Bridge erupted to a man (and woman) as if we had just won the Premier League title itself. Team mates were elated for the Spanish striker burying him beneath the entire team (thank god Petr Cech couldn’t make it upfield!) His goal though (and hopefully more before the season ends) concentrates the mind and the debate about Torres and Didier Drogba playing together.

Before El Nino came on with 15 minutes to go, Drogba had once again put in a shift and a half to make a complete mockery of his critics. Our Ivorian talisman is back to his rampaging best showing up out wide, in midfield, defence and leading the water logged line with sheer menace. His passing and work rate were sublime. Although he had gone through a period of indifference this season due to his bout of malaria he once again added to his season’s tally of shots on goal and assists. He is officially the Premierships most prolific ‘shots on target’ striker 2010/11 so far.

Drogba’s recent revival back to peak form has come at the expense of Fernando Torres. Now that Torres has hit the goal trail it is up to the manager and coaching staff to blend the two together so that they offer Chelsea a dual threat up front rather than individual threats ‘sharing’ the 90 minutes of game time. What a waste of talent left on the bench! It has been proven both obvious and costly in terms of results and displays that this squad of players is not suited to a 4-4-2 formation. It has also been shown by their performances together that in a 4-4-2 Drogba and Torres cannot play alongside each other.

It still amazes me how sports writers, radio commentators, TV broadcasters and some fans still question why Drogba takes many of our corners and long range free kicks instead of going in the box to get on the end of things himself. Even ex-players commentating on our games don’t understand this ploy. The truth is that Drogba is simply the best crosser of a ball that Chelsea have and the poor bloke cannot be in two positions at the same time! How many times do we see a Frank Lampard corner/free kick or Florent Malouda corner/free kick hit the first defender. How many times are crosses into the box ‘flat’ and without pace? With Drogba taking them we are virtually guaranteed to see an accurate, menacing ball produced into the box to cause the defending team major problems. What a huge bonus it would for Chelsea to also have Fernando Torres in the box to joyously feed off of Drogba’s pinpoint aerial bombs.

Back to the issue of accommodating Torres and Drogba in the same XI, in my opinion they both need to work tirelessly on their ‘cross over’ running. Both players love to drift out wide and then cut in field. Both players like to dominate the box on occasion and make direct runs. Both players also enjoy receiving pacey well drilled crosses together with intricate defence splitting and well weighted passes that they can run onto in full stride.

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I believe Chelsea are in desperate need of a real ‘class’ winger that can play on BOTH the left or right and also cut in to create. A tricky player that constantly changes his position from left wing to right wing and then sometimes drifts inside. A player like this to play up front with both Drogba AND Torres would be, I believe, the missing link to get these two great talents actually playing together. For my money we should forget the likes of Neymar, Aguero, Pato, Kaka and whoever else (brilliant players that they may be) and concentrate the clubs efforts on bringing in Alexis Alejandro Sánchez from Udinese.

Sanchez, at 22-years-old, is the right age and can play on either wing with devastating effect. He can also play in the middle and is certainly no stranger to the net is himself. His amazing dribbling ability and unbelievable close ball control is typically South American and often leaves opposing defenders on their backsides. His quick feet are only surpassed by his quick thinking and his ability to spot a team mates run. Many wingers are quick like Sanchez but how many then have no end product. How many can play equally as well with either foot and on either wing? Unfortunately neither Malouda or Salomon Kalou are in this category or class and so Chelsea, in my opinion will not be able to accommodate both Drogba and Torres in the same side with the current crop of players we have.

In buying someone like Alexis Sanchez, Chelsea would not only be buying the incredible player himself but also buying someone who would enable our two brilliant strikers to play together. What price would you place on a purchase that could do that?

Unfortunately Chelsea are far from the only admirers keeping close tabs on the wizard known simply as Sanchez. Inter, Barcelona, United, and Man City are only four of the teams showing real interest in the player. Indeed, City representatives went to Italy a couple of weeks ago to try and do a deal for next season with Udinese and the players agent. I believe Roman Abramovich should break the bank and make the Serie A club an offer they cannot refuse to bring this special talent and footballing phenomenon to Stamford Bridge next season. I think our owner should try and get him early in the close season so that the player can settle in and have a full pre season training and tour with Drogba and Torres. To go into next term with the trinity of Drogba, Torres and Sanchez ALL playing together and singing from the same hymn sheet would frighten the life out of any defence.

Some international pundits are placing Sanchez (at 22 yrs old) in the same category as Cristiano Ronaldo at his very best. The Chilean is still getting better and improving his overall game with every new season that he plays. He is even being hailed in certain quarters as a future World player of the year! To other major clubs he would be worth a fortune but to Chelsea I believe he would be worth considerably more as the single player that could get Drogs and Torres wreaking damage together in the same team.

Udinese do not obviously want to sell him but with all of the interest from Europe’s big boys it is hard to imagine them being able to hold on to this genius for much longer. Let us hope that Roman can out flank City (and the rest) to land this prodigious talent for next term and get his £50m man really playing WITH the Chelsea legend that is simply, Didier Drogba! KTBFFH

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