The date is July 3rd 2015 and it has been announced that Chelsea have signed Colombian striker Radamel Falcao from AS Monaco, the deal is a season long loan with an option to buy, for many this is quite a bizarre move following the player's less than impressive display at Manchester United last season.

Falcao will link up with former Atletico Madrid team-mates Diego Costa, Thibaut Courtois and Felipe Luiz. Social media went crazy with some Chelsea fans suggesting they have signed a World Class striker, which just goes to show how short memories really can be.

Poor form

It is the understatement of the century to say Falcao is not anywhere near the best form of his life, following his loan period at Old Trafford where he only scored just four goals in 29 games, he played for Colombia in the Copa America, where he looked like a man just playing out the inevitable. 

He clearly needs games and that could be the problem at Chelsea, Diego Costa is Jose Mourinho's first choice and Falcao's arrival will not change that. The Colombian struggled with the pace of the Premier League last season, which was highlighted by the amount of times he featured in Louis Van Gaal's side.

Injury Prone

Since his knee injury on 23rd January 2014 the Colombian striker has been a pale comparison to the player he was in La Liga, this injury caused him to miss the World Cup in which his country over-performed to many people's expectations, although he did surprisingly make their World Cup 2014 squad. 

He also had his problems at Manchester United physically, which saw the 29-year-old out for around a month with a calf injury. This is a huge gamble and Mourinho must know this, rumours are that he has also had to take a wage cut from his whopping £265,000 a week to around £150,000 a week, which is still a lot of money for a player that will be warming the bench for most of the season.

Falcao's goal record

You can almost pin-point precisely, when his career started to fall away, the world was first introduced to the "goal machine" as he once was, at FC Porto where he scored a remarkable 41 goals in 51 games, culminating in winning the Europa league and Primeria Liga in 2010-11, which was to be his final season in Portugal.

The forward's next test was to try and make it in La Liga, possibly one of the most technical leagues in world football, he did not fail. Once again he only spent two seasons there, notching 52 goals in 68 games for Atletico Madrid and helping them to lift the Europa League, a trophy that Falcao seemed destined to lift for the second time.

Things started well for Falcao at Monaco following his high-profile move, the fee believed to be €60 million, even at that outlandish fee many were predicting that to still be value for money. 

Falcao has only managed 11 goals in 20 games for the Ligue 1 side due to injury, and it is debatable as to whether he will put on their red and white ever again. 

The Mourinho Myth

There is no doubting Mourinho can work his magic with certain players, but you would be kidding yourself if you think that he has the Midas touch with every player. He demands an extremely high work-rate, something that Falcao has not shown in years, probably not since his last season in La Liga. 

That is not to undermine what the "special one" has achieved but there are a few that he has got hugely wrong, for example Kevin de Bruyne who last season had the most assists in world football with 20, he also scored 10 goals and created a staggering 111 other chances in the Bundesliga with Wolfsburg

Sometimes "the great one" gets it wrong and this deal you could mark in the "could do better" category. 

Many would argue that it is a loan spell with an option to buy, but in all honesty it is not an option that Mourinho or Chelsea are likely to exhaust. 

The one thing that the Monaco loanee needs is a run of games to build his fitness up, he needs something he has not had for the last few seasons and that is an uninterrupted pre-season. 

Falcao seems determined to give it his all in the premier league, but at 29 years of age his recovery is not as impressive or as rapid as it used to be, one more big injury could see him being farmed back to France where the wilderness awaits.

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About the author
Andy Rees
I am a freelance football writer who mainly concentrates on everything Arsenal