4. Demba Ba
Demba Ba earned his big move to Chelsea in January after a couple of impressive seasons with West Ham and Newcastle. The Senegalese striker was in particularly prolific form in his time at St James’ Park, attracting interest from Arsenal, Tottenham and others with his fine finishing.
However, since moving to Chelsea to give them more options in attack other than the off-form Fernando Torres, things haven’t worked out for Ba, as he only managed to score twice in the Premier League since joining the Stamford Bridge outfit.
Mourinho knows this isn’t good enough, and is used to working with some of the world’s absolute best strikers. So far in his career he has managed Didier Drogba, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Samuel Eto’o and Cristiano Ronaldo, and will find working with a player as limited as Ba something of a culture shock.
Supposedly, the 28-year-old is being targeted for a return to West Ham by current manager Sam Allardyce, who is looking for reinforcements upfront after talks have stalled to bring Liverpool’s Andy Carroll to the club. It would only be a loan move, but it would surely signal the end of Ba’s Chelsea career, as Mourinho will target big names such as Edinson Cavani and Stevan Jovetic as part of his new strike-force.