Since didier Drogba's departure, Chelsea have been looking for the ideal Number 9 player. The Ivorian striker made a brief return in the 2014-15 season, but after winning the 2012 Champions League, the Blues were desperate to find a replacement. Eto'o was a good stopgap measure, while Diego Costa seemed to be the perfect combination of speed, power and shooting precision during his time at the club. However, since Costa's transfer in 2018, Chelsea have signed several heavyweight strikers such as Morata, Giroud, Werner, Kay Havertz (although he is mainly a No. 10 player) and Romelu Lukaku, while Batshuayi signed in the summer before Costa's departure and is seen as his replacement.
The total value of these deals is as high as £330 million, and these transfer fees do not tell the full price the Blues have paid for it. For example, Werner's transfer fee is £48m, but in his five-year contract, agent fees and salaries bring the total cost to around £102.5 million, of which he has been with the team for 18 months. As a result, Chelsea have been focusing on the forward line since July 2017. The result? In total, the players scored 128 goals in 433 games during that time, equivalent to £2.6 million per goal. That doesn't seem good enough.
Now, during this difficult time, Chelsea have another option – a college graduate who can play in the top flight. Abraham moved to Bristol City and Aston Villa on loan, where he was given the opportunity to prove himself under Lampard. The English striker scored 15 Premier League goals and three Champions League goals in his first full season at Chelsea. Despite being deprecated by Tuchel, he still scored six goals in the 2020-21 season, tied with Mount and Werner as the second top scorer in the Blues league. You know, Werner has only scored six goals in more than 2600 minutes of league games, but Tammy Abraham has tied the German's stats in just 1100 minutes, although the German international is seen as an upgraded version of the Cobham Academy graduate. However, Tammy Abraham left last summer, with Roma, under Mourinho's coaching, being his destination. He was sold for £34m, but Chelsea have a £68m buy-back clause, which will come into effect in 2023.
While some critics have pointed out that Tammy Tammy Abraham did not score against the big clubs in England, the striker did improve his reputation in Italy. He scored against Milan and Juventus, twice against Atalanta, and three of the top five teams in Serie A were scored by him. All of these goals were scored from the beginning of December, which shows that Tammy Abraham is starting to integrate into Roma's system. His ability to grab points, which he played so well at Chelsea when Lampard was in charge, was unsurprisingly brought to the Italian league, where he scored 17 goals in all competitions and contributed three assists. The Briton's stats have also returned to the level of Lampard's first season at Chelsea. Although his average shots per game dropped to 1.5 last season, compared to 2.6 the year before, this season's shots have rebounded to 3.0. Tammy Abraham is currently showing the level of a truly elite player, but in reality he has been able to do so all along. His goal record in Serie A also put him back in the England squad, a positive sign ahead of the 2022 World Cup.
Perhaps in direct contrast to Tammy Abraham's form, at Chelsea it was an old story – the strikers did not perform well. Kay Havertz and Werner have yet to meet the second season rally the club would like to see, while Lukaku has scored eight goals in 25 games so far this season, a far cry from the 30 goals he scored in 44 games last year. Chelsea have invested too much energy, time and money in their forward line, but the effort has not been shown at all. Chelsea's defender has scored so many goals this season, which is good, but the forward's goal problem needs to be solved. Tammy Abraham may not be the perfect answer, but if he hadn't left the club, he could have become Chelsea's top scorer. In other words, if the club hadn't considered bringing Tammy Abraham home, they wouldn't have joined the option to buy back in 2023.
However, given Lukaku's expenses, as well as Broia's prospects, and the fact that Tuchel didn't like Tammy Abraham last season, the reality could be quite different. Chelsea's search for a new striker is a wise move, Lukaku is almost 30 years old after all, but Broia is likely to be their target. If that's the case, then it only goes to show that Tammy Tammy Abraham was the right player for Chelsea, but at the wrong time, even though he has far outperformed the Blues' attacking players this season. As Roma sporting director Thiago Pinto put it: "There was a buyback clause in Abraham's contract, but it didn't work this summer – I'm not even worried, we're happy with Tammy, he's doing a great job. "So it seems the Italian giants won't be bothered by a possible transfer from their star striker. For now, it appears that Chelsea have made another mistake in the transfer market.