The Samuel Eto'o talk is apparently a real thing now. Kind of, anyway -- the Blues have been linked to strikers all summer and the Anzhi Makhachkala man, a former charge of Jose Mourinho at Inter Milan, was inevitably going to be sounded out about the prospect of returning to work under the Special One. His reply has simply stirred things up further:
There is only one Jose Mourinho. I have played under a lot of great coaches - but there is no other character in the game like Jose.
He is one of the best coaches in the world - and we had a lot of success together at Inter Milan. I would like to have the chance to play under him again - because it is never boring when Jose is around.
Of course Chelsea are a great team - and when we have all the offers on the table then I will discuss with my agent and see what my next step is.
-Source: Mail.
Today alone about ten people have asked what I make of this, and to be honest I'm not totally sure. Eto'o's exile to Russia in exchange for metric boatloads of cash means that his actual effectiveness is pretty hard to gauge. Yes, he scored plenty of goals in the Europa League, but the Europa League is full of teams that aren't very good, so that's neither here nor there.
Eto'o's a class player, but it's far from clear that he'd be the difference maker he used to be, and he's also horrendously expensive. Anzhi paid him crazy, crazy money when he left Inter Milan, and it's not clear how big of a wage cut he'd accept in leaving or what kind of transfer fee he'd command. Eto'o's interesting, of course, but in more of a 'huh, ok' way than anything else -- and my feeling is that he's just looking to get out and is talking up as many teams as possible in a bid to escape.