Report: Didier Drogba to sign one-year deal at Chelsea 'early next week'

The rumors about Didier Drogba returning to Chelsea continue picking up steam.  In fact, they're threatening to rise into the red and blow the Internet into smithereens.

Didier Drogba is expected to sign at the beginning of next week, a one-year contract with Chelsea at least. It could then integrate the technical staff at the end of his career.

-source: L'Equipe via Google Translate

Even if true, I couldn't imagine a contract longer than just the one year for the 36-year-old.  While I'm sure he's still decent -- he played the game-changing role off the bench to perfection in at least one of Ivory Coast's matches at the World Cup -- he'd most likely just keep Fernando Torres company on the bench as Diego Costa and Romelu Lukaku would occupy the top two spots on the depth chart.  Still, if Chelsea were ever in need of a goal late, throwing Costa, Lukaku, and Drogba on at the same time could be criminally awesome for us.

A much more intriguing and much more likely role would be that of technical staff, probably even before his playing career was officially over.  It's almost worth signing Drogba just to have him come in to coach, mentor, and keep the young strikers like Lukaku in line.