Chelsea FC Transfer News: Bayern Rejected £36M Mario Gomez Bid

Chelsea, apparently, weren't satisfied with their double swoop for Fernando Torres and David Luiz in the January transfer window. The Blues were in talks over Udinese's Alexis Sanchez, had a bid rejected for Anderlecht wonderkid Romela Lukaku, and according to Bayern Munich made an offer for striker Mario Gomez, which was also rejected. The Daily Mail reports that that bid may have been as high as €42M (£35.7M), which is a sum that absolutely boggles the mind considering his barely-single-digit goal tally in the league last season.

Clearly, someone at Chelsea wasn't happy with the club's strikers, something that Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka perhaps ought to bear in mind. We saw that with Fernando Torres, but while splashing out huge money on a player widely recognised as one of the finest strikers ever to don football boots is one thing, trying to give Bayern a king's ransom for 'Super' Mario Gomez is quite another.

Gomez, admittedly is having a great season in the Bundesliga and has re-established himself in the starting lineup after a dismal 2009/10 campaign, but I'd still find it very difficult to justify his price tag. He was so poor last year that many went off him entirely, but similarly he's nowhere near as good as he currently looks. The fact that Chelsea went chasing him when his value as at its highest is... worrisome. While the Torres deal, perhaps unfairly, drew many comparisons to the Andriy Shevchenko fiasco, bringing Gomez to Stamford Bridge would have been eerily similar to Chelsea's move to the Ukrainian in 2006.

Here's what the striker himself had to say about the situation:

I only found out about the [Chelsea] offer after [Bayern] had turned it down. But it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. I am already at a top club and I am playing where I always wanted to.

That's ok, Mario. I'd rather have Fernando Torres anyway. What a crazy January Chelsea had.