Poll: Didier Drogba – Should he stay or should he go?

By: Jamie | July 22nd, 2011

The CO blog has had some discussions already about who should be shipped out of the club. One of my big questions, though, concerns Didier Drogba – should we keep him or let him go? His future seems to be one of the big debating-points amongst the fans. Let’s examine some pros and cons.

The biggest cons against Drogba seem to be his age and his tendency to sulk – if he’s not feeling appreciated, he might not play well and go missing completely (as some would say he did because he was unhappy with the arrival of Torres). Some could argue against his diving, but he seems to have curbed that habit in recent seasons. He also tends to writhe around on the ground when he stubs a toe. He’s 33 years old in a career where 35 seems to be the “past-it” point – unless you’re a goalkeeper. So we should probably be looking to develop or bring in younger strikers for the long-term.

Anyway, you’ll have to put up with sulking strikers anyway, seeing as we’ve also got Torres and Anelka.

The pros – as we saw yesterday in Malaysia, the man still knows how to score goals. Nobody else on the team seems to remember how (a sad fact from the end of last season that is spilling over into preseason). He turns up in big games and scores big goals. He played most of last season still suffering the effects of malaria and only managed 11 goals in the league but, it can’t be forgotten, he is a great provider of assists as well. He’s less selfish now and more open to seeking out a teammate who might be in a better position to score.

He also seems to be the only one who can take freekicks accurately and possibly score from them. At least when Alex isn’t on the pitch. (Frank, what’s going on?!)

Drogba also seems to be a big help and inspiration to our younger players. He’s always willing to talk to them and help them out during training, which is some invaluable knowledge to gain from one of the world’s greatest and most powerful strikers. And how boring would Chelsea TV be without some Didier hijinks to entertain the cameras?

But again, he’s getting older now and we should be looking to the future as well as the here and now – but still, I personally would like to see Drogba stay on at the Bridge. What do you think?

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Category: Opinion, Player News, Poll

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setiaraja

drogba should stay!!! he is the backbone of chelsea.
pfelds

Didi must stay. He is, to me, part of the identity to this club. He is an icon, and in no way dead weight. Still the most lethal man in the Chelsea kit. If Torres somehow gets his act together and can recapture his once incendiary form then Didi would likely be willing to watch from the stands as someone else begins to shoulder some of chelsea's offense for once. Didi is a veteran of uncommon quality. we are lucky he is a blue, surely he has been the most valuable purchase, barring maybe cech or lampard, our transfer-illiterate management has ever made.

Remember, torres in his prime still never raised a PL golden boot, Drogba has 2. 'Nuff Said
J. Moss

As Ric Flair said, "To be the man, you got to beat the man." I have yet to see a striker at Chelsea that can challenge Drogba's dominance. Until Torres pulls his head out of his arse or Sturridge rises to the occasion, Drogba is the man.
Samuel innocent

pls drogba should go he is old
Irvine82

drogba must stay , chelsea must buy players 2 young wingers with pace & skill (mata ,navas,hazard,turan)and a creative midfielder(sneijder,pastore,hamsik,nasri) to get the best out of torres & drogba and to be able to compete with europes elite in the champions league ! i fear if we dont ,make the correct signings we will fall behind both mancherster clubs & have no chance against real & barca , also need to get rid of most of the following anelka,malouda,zhirkov,kalou,benayoon,bosingwa,fereira , just not good enough for one of the best teams , also sign aguero , he is a gem ! up blues.
Addaikyeremeh

i think we should some players lyk anelka, malouda, kalou and drobga one more chance this coming season. The major problem at Chelsea now is the midfield. We lack a creative player and we need players lyk modric and pastore if possible nasri who will operate from the wings
CareFreeChronic

You have weighted the pros and cons really well. One thing I will add is of course his off the pitch works. All the charities that he has done in Ivory Coast and in Africa in general. Such a great ambassador and a public figure for the Chelsea brand. He is the David Beckham of Ivory Coast. And it will be great if he gets to keep representing Chelsea in that manner.
Wayne

Anelka has to go im sorry but he has too and hopefully we can pull some strings to bring Aguero after we send our new young goalkeeper to A.MADRID
Abhijay Singh

you have to let go of drogba ,lampard and terry at some point . many fans dont accept this but the fact is that drogba creates disturbances in the dressing room when he is not happy,phil scholari didnt have great man management skills but drogba did create unrest in the dressing room also drogba is on 5 mil a year deal so you cant keep him on the bench it is financially stupid and no cf has been successful at chelsea becase drogba has such a big ego ,drogba has been a great servant for chelsea but it is time for him to go and he also takes one of the 17 non homegrown positions.
NMcG

I think we could get one more good season from Drogba so I'd keep him on that basis alone. The downside is that, unless AVB has seen something that nobody else has, he's not going to fit in alongside Torres. I can't help thinking that had we given Sturridge an opportunity last season we'd now be sitting with a more than decent pairing upfront and an extra £50m in the bank for a creative midfielder (not Modric) and one or two wide players!
Jon

If Torres isn't scoring, who better to have than this man ? If any striker is to go then it should be Anelka, he played on the right most of the season anyway and he ain't no winger. Buy some wingers and a high playing centre midfielder please.
Djkarolos

there isnt drogba the problem .the problem for chelsea is kalou malouda anelka benayour lampard mikel bosingua ferreira zhirkov turnbull hilario all this players hasnt have the quality for chelsea
Sean Allen

Listen,

The real problem is not Drogba, it is the fact that Lampard wasn't exactly pulling his weight when he was healthy, Kalou is selfish and needs to be shipped to an Italian side; not to mention he has the futbol IQ of an American youth player. Anelka is also another team cancer in the mold of Kalou, but clearly he has a chemical imbalance of some sort. He has about 6 different shitty soccer personalities. Benayoun should stay, he plays hard and has the pace and IQ to make things easier for the strikers. Bosi, Yuri and mikel should stay. The rest need to beat it...Just a little opnion from a non-Chelsea fan.
Irvine82

id take lampard out this list , he has more to give after a bad injury season .
Sean Allen

You think he does...
Irvine82

i guess i hope he does ;)
Segun Alayande

they are not