IS TAMMY ABRAHAM SET TO BREAK THE NUMBER 9 CURSE AT CHELSEA?

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Joseph Omoniyi

Very few players have been remarkably successful in Chelsea’s number 9 shirt with the list of strikers who have strikers who had worn the jersey and failed to perform up to expectations growing quite long. However, academy intro, Tammy Abraham seems to have different plans as he appears ready to break the 26-year-old jinx.

Since the Premier League introduced squad numbers in 1993, 14 different players have donned the No.9 shirt for Chelsea, the shirt has become somewhat ‘cursed’, with players tending to struggle at the club while wearing it, despite their huge transfer fees.

From Tony Cascarino to Steve Sidwell, Franco Di Santo, Chris Sutton, Mateja Kezman, Radamel Falcao, Fernando Torres, and Alvaro Morata.

Cascarino who struggled in his two seasons at Chelsea at the start of the Premier League era, scoring just eight times in 51 appearances, went on to great success in France, though, scoring 61 goals in 84 appearances for Marseille, and adding another 44 in three seasons at Nancy.

Aged just 18, Di Santo made a £3.4million move from Chilean club Audax Italiano in January 2008, but he failed to score in 16 appearances in all competitions for Chelsea.

He joined Blackburn on loan for the 2009-10 campaign and was then sold to Wigan before going on to appear for Werder Bremen and Schalke in the Bundesliga

Four years after winning the league title, Blackburn were relegated and Sutton saw himself moved on to Chelsea for a £10million fee. The striker’s time at Stamford Bridge was a dismal one, lasting just one season and including one goal before he was moved on to Celtic the following summer.

After an unsuccessful season on loan at Manchester United, Falcao was given another chance to prove himself to the English audience with Chelsea in 2015-16. However, his loan was incredibly unsuccessful, and the Blues unsurprisingly turned down the chance to sign him for £38million at the end of the season.

Higuain was signed on loan from Juventus in January 2019 taking the brave decision to take the No.9 shirt. Chelsea were given the option to buy him permanently for €36million or extend his loan by a season for half of that. The fact the Blues did neither says it all about how successful he was.

Crespo wore the No.21 shirt in his debut season at the club but was handed the No.9 following a year away on loan at AC Milan as Jose Mourinho attempted to convince him to stay. In total, he scored 25 goals in 73 appearances for the Blues before joining Inter on a temporary two-year deal, until his Chelsea contract expired.

The most expensive of the lot is Morata who cost Chelsea a club-record £60million in 2017 but rarely looked capable of justifying the fee. Morata displayed quality at times, managing a not disastrous 11 goals in his first season in the Premier League, but it’s fair to say he failed to fill Diego Costa’s boots.

After a prolonged period of interest from Abramovich, Torres eventually joined Chelsea for £50million in January 2011. Widely regarded as a flop at the club, Torres in fact scored 45 goals in 172 appearances, which is a better record than many might realise.

Meanwhile, academy graduate of the club, Abraham who has had loan spells with Bristol City, Swansea and Aston Villa has been very impressive considering his progress this season. The striker has already scored 7 goals, spreading it out among just 3 games.

Abraham whose paternal lineage is Nigeria has featured in non-competitive fixtures for the senior team but still remained eligible to play for the Super Eagles.

The youngster has been showered with praise by several pundits who believe he has a lot to offer The Blues.