Chelsea spent years trying to make Fernando Torres work before signing Diego Costa. What if they had signed any of the other superstars sooner?
The Fernando Torres signing made Chelsea one part trigger shy on buying a new big name striker and one part Andaman that they could make it work with Torres. The Blues got close, but ultimately Torres was a bust from start to finish given what was expected of him.
Chelsea eventually signed Diego Costa after an incredible 36 goal season in Spain to fulfill their need for a superstar striker. But Costa was hardly the first superstar striker the Blues had been linked to and arguably, he was not even the best one they had been rumored for.
What if Chelsea had signed Radamel Falcao in 2013 instead of AS Monaco? Or what if Chelsea had signed Edinson Cavani that year instead of Paris Saint Germain? Would the year jump give the Blues the advantage they gained with Costa? Would they have done better than the Spaniard?
Reality saw Chelsea bring in Samuel Eto’o on a short term deal once Falcao and Cavani were off the table. So had either signed, it is clear that Eto’o would not have come in to be a stop gap for a new striker. It is also likely that Romelu Lukaku would have pushed for a transfer sooner because his route to the first team was destroyed.
Chelsea surely would have lacked the creative spark that Cesc Fabregas provided Costa in 2014/2015, but either Falcao or Cavani alone would have improved the Blues immensely. Eto’o, Torres, and Demba Ba together were only good for 31 goals in the 2013/2014 season. Cavani and Falcao may not have been able to cover that total alone, but given they scored 38 and 34 their previous seasons, it is pretty clear that they would have gotten at least 20 on their own.
From there the two would diverge. Cavani went to PSG in reality and scored 25 goals in 43 appearances. At Chelsea, that alone could have been enough to close the gap to win the Premier League title in Jose Mourinho’s first season back at the club.
Falcao is a different story. At Monaco in real life, he was able to play just 19 games before injuries piled up and culminated in an ACL tear. Injuries like that tend to come just at random just as much as they do by overwork and science and it likely would have occurred regardless of what club he was at if he played the same amount.
That means Chelsea would likely have seen their season turn out much the same as it did in real life, but they would have also gotten the post injury Falcao for more than the one season he spent on loan at Chelsea in reality.
The Blues would surely have stuck with him, as they did with Torres, trying to make it work. But that would come at the cost of the 2014/2015 season and the downturn Mourinho saw in 2015/2016 likely comes even sooner than it did in real life.
Reality saw Chelsea miss out on silverware in the 2013/2014 season but find it in 2014/2015 with Costa. Cavani could have pushed that time table up, but the injuries Falcao was almost sure to face regardless would have held Chelsea back. Some transfers are missed opportunities while others were crises averted.