Former Chelsea coach Paul Clement, who is now at Real Madrid, says that our £32 million signing Diego Costa is not yet at the level of Didier Drogba.
Chelsea wasted no time in securing the signing of Costa. At 25 years of age, he comes to Chelsea at a similar time as our legend Drogba. After initially struggling to impose himself in the Premier League, Drogba went on to become one of the best strikers in the world. His imposing physical nature made him a nightmare for opposition defenders.
Costa and Drogba both measure at 6 feet and 2 inches, but Clement reckons that Costa cannot bully the defenders in the same way as Drogba did in his prime. He also says that Costa will find it difficult to achieve the same level of success as he did in Spain. He said:
“Costa’s aggression and nastiness is the key, as without that he’d be a fairly average player.
“I’m not surprised Mourinho has signed him as he’s the kind of player who’d die on the pitch for his teammates, but he won’t find it as easy to bully defenders in England as he did in Spain.
“He’s not Didier Drogba yet, but he’s a big improvement on what Chelsea had.”
Despite scoring 36 goals last season, there have been some doubts as to whether Chelsea were hasty in signing Costa. The Spanish international had a very poor World Cup, as he looked totally ineffective against Netherlands and Chile.
Costa has been training with the team mates after recently reporting to pre-season. He could make his first Chelsea appearance in the upcoming friendly matches. The friendly matches will act as a good precursor of Costa’s ability to integrate.
