Planet Drogba

Moses has to be one of the smartest purchases we've ever made.

I can't believe I just saw that from Oscar. What a talent we have there.

Juan Mata is an incredible player. Man of the match for me. Spain doesn't want to call him up? That's fine; I don't particularly like sharing anyway. The commentators went on and on about Ivanovic's volley but, amazing as it was, they didn't mention Mata's flick to him. A first time scorpion kick to set him up. Beautiful. Then consider his assist on Hazard's goal. Wins the ball, takes it all the way up the field, and threads it beautifully to Hazard. It's wonderful to watch, and Chelsea has some really exciting talents in Mata, Hazard, and Oscar. And let's not forget we still have Moses as an option on the bench. This team is going to be scary when Marin and Sturridge come back from injury. I went into this season thinking this was going to be a rebuilding year but after what I've seen at the start of this season I like us at the very least as a title contender. And on a somewhat related note, Neymar can stay in Brazil for the rest of his career for all I care. I'm more than happy with Oscar. edit: I also feel like Ramires deserves a special mention. He's probably my favorite player on the team now that Drogba is gone. Never stops running, always tracks back, definition of hard work. I'm so glad we're now playing him in the middle of the park where he belongs.

Holy sh*t Oscar. Fantastic purchase. I hope this means we'll see more of him.

Selling him would be a huge mistake in my opinion. I feel as if he'd light it up if given the chance at another club.

These long balls are killing us. We inevitably lose the ball and ATM counter...

On a bright note Oscar looks good? What if we bench Lamps next game and put Ramires there? I realized that part of the problem is that Lampard can't get back quick enough. Surely that's something Ramries would excel at? And as we've seen this season Ramires is definitely not a winger.

Ugh I really don't know how much more of this I can stomach...

Disregard this post. Shame on me for not reading OP and seeing that only a couple of sentences are allowed. Can someone give me some sort of contact info for him though? I would still like to send him this message.

I didn't realize this thread existed before I made this one: but that's basically what I would like to say to Drogba.

Just saw ancelottis interview. Such a gent. Makes me kind of miss him but right now I think rdm pretty clearly is the better option.

Terrence Boyd looks to be a great player for the future. Does anyone know if we've tied him down yet? Speaking of which, please stay with us Chandler!

I know this is a little late but please bear with me nonetheless. When I was eight years old, my father landed tickets to a Chelsea FC match here in the States. As you guys know, big teams sometimes tour foreign areas in the summers. In this case, Chelsea was coming to play a friendly in my somewhat local area. I was going to see the first professional football match of my life. At this point in my life, my father and I weren't close. We rarely interacted, and when we did we were usually yelling at each other. We never got along and mostly just stayed out of each others' ways. But a lot changed after this game. Long story short, I fell in love with Chelsea FC. I can't even remember the team they played that day. But the way THEY played, the way they looked, they way they carried themselves. It was beautiful. I'm sure most on this forum can relate. I subsequently became an avid Chelsea fan. Pretty soon, I forced my father to get Dish so I could watch my Chelsea matches. At first, I would just watch the games on my own, but after a little while (coincidentally around the time Chelsea acquired Drogba) my father became bored of crime dramas and started watching the games with me. And guess what? He fell in love too. We began to watch so many games (in the past I'd skip some games if I wanted to sleep in or something but no longer) that it became a tradition to wake up early every Saturday morning to watch our Chelsea FC take the field. A couple years later, Drogba had his first golden boot year (06/07). At this point, we began watching many soccer games, not just those in which Chelsea participated in. But it was always much more exciting to watch Chelsea games. Primarily of course because of our love for the team, but there was something else. Someone, one player, made them much more unique. Didier Drogba. He was such a...different...player. He was someone I always thought could play any position but was simply divine as a striker. His playing style was so unique. His seemingly infinite strength, taking on numerous defenders and occupying an entire back four on his own. Whole teams would have to readjust their defense tactics simply because of Drogba. And of course, he's a man that lives for the big games. Cometh the hour, cometh the man, and no one embodies this more than Drogba. Just check out his goals:appearances ratio in cup finals. I think it was about 1:1? Absolutely insane. He is also a unique person. He is one who not only gives back to the community but goes above and beyond the call of duty. For starters, he brought peace to his home country of Côte d'Ivoire. More recently, he donated all $3million of his Pepsi endorsement to building a hospital there as well. I'm sure most of us here are familiar with this. Regardless, my father and I were huge Chelsea fans. But we also became huge Drogba fans. And as we progressed through the years, we lived through the best and the worst together. The first title win in 04/05 (sorry to go back in time for a second but I can't leave that out of course!), the cup double in 06/07, the night in Moscow which we will never speak of again, the league/cup double in 10/11. And as we lived through the best and worst of the club, we did with Drogba as well. Ecstasy when capturing his first golden boot, the anger, frustration, desperation, and sadness of Moscow, ecstasy again with the second damned golden boot! The important thing is that we lived through these emotional experiences together. This was completely foreign to us. But Chelsea, and Drogba, brought us so much closer. And we both became better people because of it. Then this year happened. It was a year of ups and downs. For my father and I, we mostly only lived the downs. Before any of the real positives of the season had manifested, my father lost his long battle with cancer (May 9th 2:20 pm). We had grown very close. I know that he would have loved to have seen the FA Cup victory, which at the time he was too sick to see. But even more so, especially after that night in Moscow, I know that he would have given anything to have seen Chelsea with the champions league (unfortunately he passed just a week and a half before the triumph). ESPECIALLY in the manner they did. Specifically, doing it as underdogs and with Drogba dominating. In any case, I just wanted to say that although Drogba's generosity physically helped many in Africa, he touched many others as well. He was one of the major driving forces in me becoming close with my father. And even though it was only for a few years, they were without a doubt the best years of my life. So to Drogba. I will miss you. Watching Chelsea won't be the same with you anymore (though of course, I will still follow them with great pleasure). But I'll always support you in whatever you do, and you'll always be my favorite player, past, present, or future. Thank you.

I saw this quote as well and thought it was mature from Lens. It's nice to see we're not going to have anything near a repeat of the Kakuta debacle.

I don't think Torres has much competition outside of John Terry. Despite not starting every game he still won the golden boot. Most of the other players on this list barely got to sniff the field.