Alvaro Morata is the latest Chelsea flop out of the club as he completes a transfer to Atletico Madrid and Gonzalo Higuain close to replace him at Stamford Bridge.

Morata has been strongly linked with Atletico by Sport, who report on Spanish radio station COPE claiming the deal is all but done for him to move back to the Spanish capital.

Meanwhile, the Guardian are among the sources stating Higuain is closing in on a move to Stamford Bridge as Chelsea hope to break this strange striker curse they seem to have.


While the Blues have of course had some great centre-forwards like Didier Drogba and Diego Costa in recent times, it’s mostly been one underwhelming signing after another since Roman Abramovich took over.

Let’s face it, apart from those two, most Chelsea strikers have been absolute duds since Jimmy Floyd-Hasselbaink. Two top striker signings in nearly 16 years under their Russian owner – far from good enough.

Here, we’ve ranked the ten worst ones to pull on a Blue shirt – with ten being not quite the worst, and one the most spectacular flop of all…(and yes, Morata is in there)

10) Hernan Crespo

Games: 73

Goals: 25

So yeah, not the worst, but really not great from the Argentine, who was one of the first big signings of the Abramovich era.

Crespo shone in his time in Serie A, and even had a loan spell back there with AC Milan in 2004/05, when he scored a pretty reasonable 18 goals, including two in two legs against Manchester United in the Champions League, and a further two in that final defeat to Liverpool in Istanbul.

For Chelsea, however, he just never seemed to settle, despite one or two crackers against Arsenal and Wigan.

9) Andriy Shevchenko

Games: 77

Goals: 25

An even bigger name with even more expectations on him when he arrived, Shevchenko is therefore an even bigger flop.

The Ukraine star was absolutely unplayable for much of his career at AC Milan, but just joined Chelsea too late as he looked slow and sluggish in the Premier League.

Like Crespo, he also went back to Italy on loan at Milan, but failed to recapture his best form for the club again, heading back to Chelsea to play one more game before a return to Dinamo Kiev to see out his career.

. Olivier Giroud
Games: 43

Goals: 10

You know what? Morata gets a LOT of flak, which, although justified, somewhat takes the heat off this handsome man, who has not done enough since his move from Arsenal last January.

Known for being a real poacher in the box with the Gunners, along with scoring the odd sublime wonder-goal, Giroud has never really looked close to repeating that at Stamford Bridge.

Okay, he may only really have been signed as a backup player, but he’s had more than enough chances to get in ahead of the misfiring Morata and has not taken them. For shame.

7) Loic Remy

Games: 47

Goals: 12

Only ever signed as a backup, Loic Remy served that role quite well in his first season at Chelsea, scoring seven goals in the league as the Blues won the title.

However, he looked woefully out of his depth the more he played and endured a terrible 2015/16 campaign, netting just once in 13 league appearances.

We can see what Chelsea were trying to do with this one, but he was just never really up to the job. A short-sighted move that no doubt blocked the path of another talented youngster somewhere in that academy.

6) Fernando Torres

Games: 172

Goals: 45

In the end, Torres did actually score quite a few goals for Chelsea, but only thanks to quite how many opportunities he got with the club.

The Spaniard was not, however, a successful signing for CFC, looking a shadow of the player who tore Premier League defences apart at Liverpool.

A big flop, up there with the most over-priced signings ever, though his Atletico Madrid swansong in recent years was pleasant to see.

5) Alvaro Morata

Games: 72

Goals: 24

The numbers show Morata is going to leave Chelsea remembered as being as big a flop as the likes of Shevchenko and Torres.

Unlike those guys, however, the 26-year-old doesn’t have the excuse of arriving in England when he was past his peak – he should be playing the best football of his career right now.

And maybe my memory is just letting me down a bit here, but it feels like Morata’s collection of absolute horror-misses bumps him up a few places here.

4) Mateja Kezman

Games: 41

Goals: 7

Remember this guy? He looked absolutely lethal in his time at PSV, earning comparisons with Ruud van Nistelrooy.

At Chelsea, however, he was useless, and it’s little surprise he lasted just one season with the Blues after just seven goals in 41 games.

His career never really recovered after that either, with underwhelming spells at Atletico Madrid, Fenerbahce and Paris Saint-Germain.

3) Alexandre Pato

Games: 2

Goals: 1

Fair play, a ratio of a goal every other game is not too bad from the Brazilian, but this signing was absolute nonsense to begin with.

Despite his career already clearly falling apart at this stage, Pato was loaned to Chelsea from Corinthians and obviously didn’t do enough to get into that awful team that finished 10th in 2015/16.

Oh, and that only goal he scored for them was a penalty in a 4-0 win over a dreadful Aston Villa side, so a bit less impressive now.

2) Claudio Pizarro

Games: 32

Goals: 2

Another baffling failure, considering how good Pizarro has been elsewhere, but this one just did not work out at all.

The Peruvian is a bit of a Bayern Munich legend, having shone in two spells with the club, winning six Bundesliga titles and the Champions League as part of that treble-winning campaign.

Incredibly, he’s also had four spells at Werder Bremen and is still going strong(ish) at the age of 40, netting three goals this season – more than he managed in that ill-fated spell at Stamford Bridge under Jose Mourinho.

1) Radamel Falcao

Games: 12

Goals: 1

‘It hurts me people in England think that the real Falcao is the one we saw at United,’ said Jose Mourinho (quoted by BBC Sport) ahead of signing Falcao. Turns out the one at Chelsea was even worse.

Genuinely one of the top ten best strikers of the last decade probably, but Radamel Falcao’s time in the Premier League was an absolute disaster.

Nice one
So organized

aysuprano:
Nice one
So organized

Thanks

In terms of ratio of GAMES PLAYED to GOALS SCORED....PATO did better than the remaining 9, while CLAUDIO PIZZARO remains the worst, followed by FALCAO

EVILFOREST:
In terms of ratio of GAMES PLAYED to GOALS SCORED....PATO did better than the remaining 9, while CLAUDIO PIZZARO remains the worst, followed by FALCAO

Ok