Didier Drogba is leaving Chelsea FC

ESPN is reporting that Didier Drogba has told France Football that he has told his teammates (whew!) that he is leaving Chelsea.

"We (he and his team-mates) will not be together next season," Drogba is quoted as telling France Football magazine. "As I have decided to leave, I wanted to tell them to their faces.

"They made me break down. I found it hard to admit that it was finished with me and the club. But I don't envisage sitting on the bench watching others play at a time when the club is looking at putting together a new team.

"So there we go, I am readying myself for a great leap into the unknown. It will be another adventure."

So in a week where Ruud van Nistelrooy retires from football, we say goodbye (at least from the Premiership) to one of the leagues great strikers. I remember Drogba, then with Marseille, destroying Newcastle United in the Champions League back in 2003. He moved to Chelsea the following season and has been on the the league's best strikers, and one of fantasy football's most consistent point scorers.

How many players would have caused a panic among fantasy managers as they tried to decide whether or not to hold him at a discount when he was going to miss a month of games for the African Cup of Nations in 2009. Nik coined it The Drogba Dilemma.

He is by far the must-own player in the league this year, which has been disguised a bit because everyone has owned him relatively cheaply. Once you have to pay full price to own him and be able to keep pace, things get quite a bit more difficult.

How many players have you sold at a discount when they were going to miss a week! One game! Drogba left for a month and if I remember correctly, those that kept him were quite happy to have done so.

Now, the question becomes what happens at Chelsea. Torres is not happy with the way the club has been "treating" him. And for fantasy purposes, he's dead to us. There hasn't been a time since he's moved to Chelsea that he's done well for me when I've had him in my team, or that he's made me regret not having him when I didn't. Will the next Chelsea manager, whomever that is, be able to get the best - or even some semblance of form - out of Torres? Torres will be with Spain at Euro2012. Will he get a rest with the likes of Fernando Llorente starting ahead of him? Will his ego be able to handle being second-choice for both club and country?

And what of the "next" Drogba? Like Torres, Romelu Lukaku has come out saying how unhappy he is to have started so rarely for Chelsea. It is expected that he'll be out on loan next season. Does that see Daniel Sturridge moved to a central, or at least a bigger, role next season? Will Salomon Kalou's return to favour under Di Matteo be extended next season?

There is much to be sorted out at Chelsea on the heel's of the club's biggest triumph. But it does seem like we'll have a cheap option at center forward for the beginning of the next fantasy season. It just seems unlikely that it will be of the quality of a Didier Drogba.