Chelsea could land £50m machine who’s a “deadly finisher”

In recent years, Chelsea have had some excellent attackers play for the club. Of course, leading the attack for the Blues now is Cole Palmer, who has an extraordinary record for the West Londoners. The Manchester City academy graduate has 39 goals and 21 assists in 70 games for the club so far.

Didier Drogba is perhaps the best striker in Chelsea history. He scored 164 goals and grabbed 80 assists in 381 appearances. Legendary Belgian winger Eden Hazard was another deadly attacker for Chelsea, and he bagged 110 goals and assisted 85 times in 352 games for the club.

Another dangerous former Blues attacker was Frenchman, Nicolas Anelka.

Anelka’s Chelsea career

The now-retired Anelka was something of a journeyman in top-level football. He played all over Europe, having spells at Real Madrid, Arsenal and Liverpool among others, as well as experiencing football in China and India.

However, he arguably played his best football for Chelsea. Indeed, the West Londoners were the club he played for more than any other, making 184 appearances in total. He managed 59 goals and 30 assists over five seasons at Stamford Bridge.

Undoubtedly the Frenchman’s best campaign at the club came in 2008/09 when he won the Premier League Golden Boot. Anelka scored 19 goals that season, winning the esteemed prize outright, beating Cristiano Ronaldo by one goal, in his final year at Manchester United.

The attacker, who hails from Versailles in France, was a player highly regarded within the footballing world. Former Chelsea boss, the legendary Carlo Ancelotti, described him as a “top player” back in January 2010.

There was no doubt that Anelka was scintillating for Chelsea, and surely current boss Enzo Maresca would love to have a player like him in the squad again. Well, the Blues have been linked with someone once compared to the former Chelsea number 39.

The Anelka-esque player Chelsea want

The player in question here is another French attacker who wears the number 39, Mathys Tel. The Bayern Munich star has been linked with a move to Stamford Bridge as recently as Thursday by TEAMTalk, who explain they are in ‘active conversations’ for his signature.

They are not alone in the race to sign the 19-year-old. Manchester United and Arsenal are also showing strong interest, and, according to Fabrizio Romano, Tottenham Hotspur had a £50m bid accepted, although the player rejected the move. It is safe to assume Tel would cost Chelsea the same amount if they were to sign him permanently.

It was football analyst Ben Mattinson who compared Tel to Anelka, and he was full of praise for the youngster outside of that. He described the 19-year-old as a “deadly finisher”, something which certainly rang true for Anelka during his career.

It has been a tough campaign for the dynamic attacker this season. He has played just 14 games across all competitions, is yet to score, and has just one assist to his name. However, he has only featured for 458 minutes, the equivalent of 5 full 90-minute games.

Last season, the French prodigy was fantastic and showed what he can do when given an opportunity in the side.

In all competitions, Tel played 41 games, scoring ten goals and grabbing six assists. However, his 140 minutes were equal to 16 full 90-minute games, meaning he averaged a goal involvement per game.

Chelsea will be hoping the Bayern youngster can deliver these kinds of performances at Stamford Bridge. He is a player with bags of potential, who, if in the right environment, can hit some extraordinary numbers,

If Tel can come close to the levels of Anelka at Chelsea, the Blues might have another French superstar on their hands.