Monaco were THIS close to taking Falcao back from Chelsea

Curses.

We came so close!

And yet, we remain so far away.

"It's true that we have spoken several times with Falcao."

"The first idea was that he returned to Monaco to play the second half of the season. He came to us, he was assessed by our doctors. Unfortunately, he was injured. We took the decision, it is better that he remains at Chelsea."

-Vadim Vasilyev; AS Monaco VP; source: RMC via Goal

Vasilyev had basically said the same thing last week, that Falcao's injury put the kibosh on any intentions of the parent club to agree to an early recall.  This now confirms not only that decision, but the rumors of a secret visit to the principality as well.  Last week, Vasilyev's words were still qualified with a "for the moment", but now the decision seems final.

Curses.

Falcao's not expected to recover until February from the latest whatever that's bothering him.  Not that he was effective at all — surprise! — before then, scoring just the one goal against Crystal Palace in his 350 minutes of action.  There have been hopeful rumors of interest from elsewhere, most notably of Columbus Crew in MLS, but it's far more likely that Falcao sees out the season at Chelsea, collecting his paychecks and continuing to make very little impact.  Since this is basically a sunk cost anyway, maybe we can bring in Pato somebody still (or give more minutes to the likes of Traoré) if a third striker is needed.