http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/foo...icle5792762.ece

Chelsea are lining up Vágner Love, the CSKA Moscow forward, as a potential replacement for Didier Drogba if he leaves the club this summer. The Ivory Coast striker is a target for Inter Milan and Marseilles, and Chelsea are willing to sell if they are able to recoup the £24 million they paid for him five years ago.

Drogba’s contract expires at the end of next season and he has been seeking an extension for some time, but the club are unwilling to begin negotiations until the summer. Even then Drogba, 30, may be disappointed, because senior figures at the club have been disenchanted by his performances in the past 12 months and there are lingering concerns over the state of his knees after several operations.

Chelsea’s dream scenario would be for Drogba to be sold to Inter to give them sufficient funds to reinvest in Vágner Love. The Brazil striker was on Luiz Felipe Scolari’s list of targets before he was sacked last month, but the 24-year-old has also impressed Guus Hiddink, the interim manager, after enjoying a magnificent campaign in Russia last season, in which he scored 20 goals in 26 league matches.

Hiddink is adamant that he will leave Stamford Bridge at the end of the season, but will advise the club on transfer targets in the interim and has told Roman Abramovich that signing Vágner Love for £15 million would represent good business. The Chelsea owner has close ties with CSKA because his former oil company, Sibneft, used to sponsor the Russian club and he would have little problem getting the deal done, which would frustrate Everton, who are preparing a renewed bid at the end of the season after a proposed loan move fell through last summer.

Chelsea have no new injury worries before tomorrow’s Champions League first knockout stage, first leg against Juventus, but Ricardo Carvalho is unlikely to be fit despite stepping up the intensity of his training after a hamstring injury. The Portugal defender is hopeful of returning against Wigan Athletic on Saturday, but Ashley Cole is available to face Juventus after serving a one-match domestic suspension.

Well he DOES have blue hair, so could that be a cryptic 'come and get me plea...'

Or not. Good player though.

We have been linked with him before, and I really think it is more a "Russian Connection" that the media, in their usual infinite wisdom, have concucted to further perpetuate our "shady" money. Also, we as a club. as wanting to recoup the $24million we paid for him 5 years ago??? He isn't as young as he was, and has been more than petulant and injury prone in the past year, so I think if we got low teens for him, we'd be lucky!

He may be worth having a look at if it is true that didier is heading for the exit door

I am not having this rumour at all - the idea of Vagner Love being able to replace Drogba is a little like the idea that Gomes can replace Cech. He is not in the same league as Drogba - hell he isn't even in the same ball park...err what other silly expressions are there - I don't think he would even be allowed to park his car in the same car park as Drogba.

Agreed. Is he a good player? Yes. Is he a great player? No. Does he play in a similar way to Didier? No. So what's the point.

Given how much he would cost as the Russian clubs are under no pressure to sell, it would be a pretty shocking purchase.

But then who is? :S

I'm not sure there's a player around who can really replace Drogba in all that he does.

True, and I guess that's the point in a way. If Didier goes, our playing style will have to change, and if that happens, we could do a lot better than Love as a player around which to build this new style.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/foo...icle5792762.ece

Chelsea are willing to sell if they are able to recoup the £24 million they paid for him five years ago.[/i]

Its clearly guesswork journalism but if we are hoping to get 24 million for Drogba we are fools and i would again have to question the nous of the people who run our club.

Ditto if we think Love can replace him.

Midtable material, not good enough for us.