As reported by the Daily Mail, Chelsea delegates are due to meet with 18-year-old Anderlecht striker Romelu Lukaku to bring what many call “the next Didier Drogba” to the club next season.

Lukaku, who’s already been wooed by Real Madrid, AC Milan and Inter Milan, gives the clear edge to Chelsea through his unabashed fandom of the Stamford Bridge club. Recently appearing at a sponsor’s event in Hasselt he answered the question of “what is your dream?” by writing “to be a Chelsea player,” effectively killing off any interest from other clubs.

Not to piggyback on the great article written by Brian Connell, but it really does seem like Chelsea is going for the “name” over what would actually fit. It’s sensible to grab a player called “the next Drogba” to eventually replace the real Drogba, but what of the fact that Daniel Sturridge is sitting right over there, just waiting to come back to Chelsea from Bolton? What of the theory that the Drogba-Fernando Torres partnership didn’t work due to the similarities of each player? If you’re Chelsea, wouldn’t you try and grab someone complimentary to the players already under your employ?

While Lukaku could end up being a great signing for Chelsea, I choose to support the rumors going around of the Guss Hiddink managerial hiring coupled with the desire to throw money at Wesley Sneijder for the club. While Chelsea possibly see Torres as the younger, top shelf striker to take the club into the future, someone’s going to have to set him up, and Sneijder’s a much better choice than an older, coming off an injury Kaka that was previously rumored.

As far as Lukaku goes, one of the things that is universal in every sport is that giving an 18-year-old a lot of money and putting a lot of hype behind him (“the next Drogba” isn’t exactly the way I would want to come over to England) is just pushing the levels closer to bust than success in the gamble of adding players. Any player that’s signed is going to get a little bit of hype behind him, but bringing in a youngster to a top shelf club where he will compete alongside the guy he patterns his game after is putting a lot of unnecessary difficulty on top of the pressure that’s already there.