The No.9 shirt in the game of football is one of the most iconic numbers to be worn. Every club hands this number to their forwards and each club has some legendary players playing ‘the beautiful game’ in this jersey but why is this not the case with Chelsea. It’s somewhat similar to No.23 in basketball where the likes of Michael Jordan, LeBron James and Anthony Davis all wear this number and as a result will attract a lot of fans to use the same number.
The same could be said about the number 9 shirt as well. Some of the greatest players to ever play the game have played in this iconic number. Luis Suarez at Barcelona, Robert Lewandowski at FC Bayern Munich, Johan Cruyff at Barcelona, Sir Bobby Charlton at Manchester United, Filippo Inzaghi at AC Milan, Alan Shearer at Newcastle United and Alfredo Di Stefano at Real Madrid. Many records were broken and trophies were won by the players wearing this shirt.
But this number has been a curse for two time European champions, Chelsea. Almost every player they have bought and handed this jersey has failed. Some of the reasons that these big-money signings failed were:
NOT THE IDEAL FIT FOR THE MANAGER OR THE SYSTEM
Chelsea under Roman Abramovich were ruthless and successful. If the manager did not work they would be out of the door and similar conditions were put on players. But along with being ruthless, they were also reckless and careless.
SIGNING PLAYERS WAY PAST THEIR PRIMES
We have used this saying because The Blues have had a history of splashing money on the shiniest available players on the market. It’s all and well good to pay big sums for players who will produce for that price point but signing players past their primes is utterly stupid. Radamel Falcao and Gonzalo Higuain are the two prime examples.