Chelsea’s former striker Didier Drogba has admitted that he hopes to return to Chelsea as the club’s manager one day in the future.
Drogba is currently plying his trade in Canada but remains one of Chelsea fans’ most beloved forwards, scoring 164 goals in all competitions across two spell at the London club. He is best loved for scoring the penalty that won Chelsea the Champion’s League in 2012, but he also won four Premier League titles, four FA Cups and three League Cups with the defending Premier League champions.
Drogba told BBC Africa, “I want to give back to the club which has given so much to me. I have agreed that with the club directors. Why not manager? Why not sporting director, trainer at the academy or maybe an advising role for strikers?”
The idea that his former first choice striker is keen on the manager’s role might not sit well with Stamford Bridge’s current boss, Jose Mourinho. The Blues have endured a torrid start to the season, losing seven of their first twelve fixtures in the Premier League, with the self-proclaimed Special One coming under increasing pressure regarding the team’s performance. The club sit 15th in the league after their worst start to a top flight campaign since 1978-1979, with a tricky away game in the London derby against Tottenham Hotspur coming up this weekend.
Drogba is certain that the club have made the right decision in sticking by their boss, saying, “If the club has kept him that means owner Roman Abramovich thinks that he is the right man. I think the players trust him and he is giving his best to change the situation”.
Drogba admits that his old team-mates are going through a ‘difficult moment’ right now, but is convinced they have what it takes to make it back to the right end of the Premier League table. Back-to-back wins over Norwich City and Maccabi Tel Aviv are certainly helping with that notion, and the Ivory Coast striker said, “They have quality when it comes to the players, and quality when it comes to the management. This is a club which usually doesn’t have a bad season twice”.
Though Drogba is unlikely to be given the manager’s job any time soon, Mourinho will be hoping that results take an upturn quickly as he fights to get his team back to the top of the Premier League. They are currently closer to the relegation zone than they are to the league leader’s Leicester City, whilst they are also ten points shy of this weekend’s opponents, Spurs.