Michael Emenalo says he almost signed £35m striker to replace Didier Drogba at Chelsea

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Chelsea have had a problem with their strikers for a long time now.

Indeed, the number nine shirt at Stamford Bridge has been cursed for almost 20 years at this point from Andriy Shevchenko to Fernando Torres all the way to Romelu Lukaku.

However, things could’ve been very different for Chelsea.

Indeed, speaking on the Obi One Podcast, Michael Emenalo has revealed that he almost signed a truly top-drawer striker for Chelsea in the early 2010s to replace Didier Drogba.

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Chelsea almost signed Sergio Aguero

According to Emenalo, Chelsea were very close to signing Sergio Aguero from Atletico Madrid at one point.

Apparently, Chelsea’s plan was to bring Aguero to the club and phase out Didier Drogba.

However, for one reason or another, this deal didn’t go through and Chelsea missed out on the Argentine before his eventual £35m move to Manchester City.

“Who’s the one that got away? Who is the one where you would wake up in a cold sweat and think, oh if only we’d landed him?” Emenalo was asked.

“Sergio Aguero. We came very, very close, and that was the one, he was 20 and the idea was to have him with Didier Drogba and and to phase Drogba out you gradually because we anticipated that Didier would go until he was 35,” Emenalo said.

“Mr Ancelotti wanted that also and had a plan, but I won’t go into detail of why it didn’t happen.”

Who else did Chelsea almost sign?

Chelsea almost signed Aguero, but he’s not the only big-name striker Chelsea have had a near miss with in recent times.

Chelsea, famously, almost signed Victor Osimhen this summer, while Harry Kane was also a Chelsea target before his move to Bayer Munich.

Almost 15 years on from the Aguero saga, Chelsea still haven’t quite managed to find that number nine to fill Drogba’s shoes.

Diego Costa came closest as he was incredible for Chelsea for a few years, but, sadly, he couldn’t sustain that form in the long term.

Nicolas Jackson has started this season well, but there’s still a feeling that Chelsea do need another new striker.

Chelsea failed to sign Aguero at the time, but now, they need to focus on finding the next Aguero.