How can we assess Eto’o’s time in the Premier League?

News is breaking that Samuel Eto’o, the three time Champions League winner, will be leaving English football after an 18 month stint in the Premier League with Chelsea and Everton. The highly decorated Cameroonian striker is on the verge of a move to Serie A with Sampdoria.

Eto’o is now 33 and arrived in England aged 32. He’d come off the back of a stint in the wilderness with Anzhi in Russia, where he’d ultimately looked to have gone for an early retirement (with a very, very healthy pension).

This was until the club looked to cut cost and Chelsea moved in to sign the former Inter Milan and FC Barcelona striker. Eto’o came in to challenge Fernando Torres and Demba Ba and act as a short term fix to Chelsea’s striking problems.

Even at 32 he certainly did a decent job for Chelsea as their top scoring centre-forward with nine Premier League goals. Ultimately though, none of these came away from home. His Premier League record is not terrible at 12 goals in 35 games for Chelsea and Everton. It is a shame that he did not come to England four years earlier, when he was at the peak of his powers, or even in 2011, when he moved to Anzhi.

In his prime he was one of the best strikers in the world and is arguably one of the best strikers of his generation. Unfortunately we did not ever see the best of him in England. His stint wasn’t bad though. He certainly no longer has the explosive pace that characterized his career but he was still as wily a striker as there was.

Eto’o’s awareness in and around the penalty area was still very good even if his game had changed. For Chelsea he scored some notable goals in big games including a hat-trick against Manchester United and a goal against Liverpool in a big game at Stamford Bridge.

The Premier League will be bidding farewell to Eto’o in what is a case of ‘oh what could have been’ had he come to the division earlier. Unfortunately he was never able to win any silverware in the division but he still left having done a very decent job.