Demba Ba
Unlike Mikel, Ba’s stay at Chelsea has been a very short one as the Blues only signed the striker in January for £7 million from Newcastle United. Ba had a reputation of scoring fantastic goals but also being very prolific and was a big factor in Newcastle finishing fifth in the 2011/2012 Premier League season. The striker had long been linked with a move to Stamford Bridge and that was confirmed in January. However, Ba couldn’t hold down a regular place in the Blues starting line-up, battling with Fernando Torres for a starting spot. Many believed that Ba deserved to start more games than he did, with Torres continuing to be disappointing in front of goal. It looks as though Ba won’t get much more of a chance to show Chelsea’s fans what he can do as reports suggest that Jose Mourinho is ready to sell the striker.
The Portuguese coach has already set his sights on signing a top quality striker this summer and it is unlikely that Ba will get much of an opportunity at Chelsea next season if he were to stay at Stamford Bridge. The good thing for Ba is that there are no shortage of suitors for him and West Ham have appeared to be favourites for most of the summer. Hammers boss Sam Allardyce is keen to re-enforce the clubs strike force this summer and has already signed Andy Carroll for £15.5 million from Liverpool. He is now looking for someone to partner Carroll in attack next season or to provide cover to the Englishman and Allardyce has identified Ba as a player he would like to bring to Upton Park. Ba is believed to want to stay in the Premier League and could get a lot of first team football should he make the move to the Hammers.
He could form a very mouth-watering partnership up front with Carroll for next season, which make West Ham a very dangerous proposition. However, recently it has been suggested that big spending Russian club Anzhi Makhachkala is interested in signing Ba and the club certainly have the money to tempt the striker to move to Russia. They could offer Ba higher wages than West Ham could and the striker could end up playing alongside Samuel Eto, the world’s highest paid player. It could come down to how much Ba wants to stay in the Premier League, with striker has having had a very successful time and could benefit from staying in a league that he knows well. The striker was once considered one of the best strikers in Premier League and unfortunately he hasn’t been able to live up to that for Chelsea but would be a good signing for West Ham should they be able to tempt him to Upton Park.