Safe pair of hands: Carlo Cudicini has been
happy to play second fiddle to Petr Cech at Chelsea
Carlo Cudicini
Chelsea career: 1999-present day
Signed: Castel Di Sangro, £160,000
League starts: 138
Cudicini’s arrival at Chelsea came before anyone had even heard
of Roman Abramovich but nonetheless he is symbol of Chelsea’s early
policy of stockpiling talent and the detrimental affect on the
careers of a number of players at the club in recent years. The
Italian could walk in to most Premier League sides but instead has
been Petr Cech’s understudy and a Carling Cup specialist.
Wayne Bridge
Chelsea career: 2003-present day
Signed: Southampton, £7 million
League starts: 74
When Bridge was signed from Southampton he became immediately a
first-team regular at Stamford Bridge with a bright future at
domestic and international level ahead of him. A series of injuries
and the arrival of Ashley Cole, however, relegated him to
understudy status for club and country and despite interest from a
host of clubs he settled in to that role comfortably.
Asier del Horno
Chelsea career: 2005-2006
Signed: Athletic Bilbao, £8 million
Sold: Valencia, £4.8 million
League starts: 25
The uncompromising Spaniard was part of Chelsea’s 2005-06
title-winning squad but his agricultural style often gave the
impression of a player out of his depth. Best remembered for a
dangerous challenge on Barcelona's Lionel Messi after the Argentine
had twisted his blood in a last 16 Champions League first leg.
Tal Ben Haim
Chelsea career: 2007-2008
Signed: Bolton Wanderers, Free
Sold: Manchester City, £5 million
League starts: 10
Brought in as defensive cover for John Terry and Ricardo
Carvalho, the Israeli found the irresistible force of that
partnership an immovable pair of objects. Just 10 league starts in
a season tells its own story and Ben Haim moved on to Manchester
City in search of first team football, though with City set to
spend in January it looks like history may well repeat itself at
Eastlands for Ben Haim.
Khalid Boulahrouz
Chelsea career: 2006-2008
Signed: Hamburg SV, £8.5 million
Sold: VfB Stuttgart, £4 million
League starts: 10
In one sense a victim of his own versatility, Boulahrouz was
brought into a small squad as cover across the entire back line by
Jose Mourinho and, despite early promise, injury and ill-discipline
restricted the number of first team appearances for a man nicknamed
‘Khalid the Cannibal’.
Shaun Wright-Phillips
Chelsea career: 2005-2008
Signed: Manchester City, £21 million
Sold: Manchester City, £9 million
League starts: 43
Wright-Phillips’ time at Chelsea cannot be characterised as a
complete failure but he never truly managed to hold down a regular
starting place and rarely showed the same bravura that made him a
star at City and prompted a £21 million transfer. That he managed
to survive his Chelsea experience with his reputation and
enthusiasm intact – unlike, say, Damian Duff – speaks well of the
diminutive winger.
Scott Parker
Chelsea career: 2004-2005
Signed: Charlton Athletic, £10 million
Sold: Newcastle United, £6.5 million
League starts: 8
Charlton were fourth in the table when Parker was unable to turn
down his "dream move” that became if not a nightmare then a waste
of time and talent. Alan Curbishley voiced his displeasure at the
time and though Charlton were rewarded financially the disruption
to their season was great. Parker’s moved smacked of Chelsea
cherry-picking for the sake of it, a view given credence by the
limited time he found on the pitch at Stamford Bridge.
Steve Sidwell
Chelsea career: 2007-2008
Signed: Reading, Free
Sold: Aston Villa, £5 million
League starts: 7
Two years on and Sidwell went down the same path as Parker.
Seduced by the wages and possible medals on offer at Chelsea, the
heartbeat of Reading’s midfield in their remarkably successful
first season in the top flight went from being a big fish in a
small pond to an incidental bottom feeder. At Reading, and now
Villa, Sidwell married steel and bright passing - when called on at
Chelsea it was in the role of hatchet man.
Juan Sebastian Veron
Chelsea career: 2003-2006
Signed: Manchester United, £15 million
Sold: Estudiantes, Free
League starts: 5
Not content with tarnishing his reputation with one English
club, Veron managed the double. After failure at Manchester United,
Chelsea offered him redemption but he delivered more of the same.
Seen as a Champions League specialist and uncomfortable in the
hurly-burly of the Premier League, he never found a rhythm and was
unable to stamp his passing creativity on a team in which he
featured infrequently.
Mateja Kezman
Chelsea career: 2004-2005
Signed: PSV Eindhoven, £5 million
Sold: Atletico Madrid, £5.3 million
League starts: 6
The walking proof that goals in the Dutch League are not always
the most reliable guide that a player will succeed in England.
Kezman scored 105 league goals in 125 appearances for PSV
Eindhoven, averaging better than a goal a game in consecutive
seasons, but inexplicably struggled to adapt to life in the Premier
League. He did manage to score the winner in the 2005 Carling Cup
final against Liverpool but 14 league starts betrays how quickly
Mourinho lost confidence in him.
Claudio Pizzaro
Chelsea career: 2007-present day
Signed: Bayern Munich, Free
Sold: Currently on loan at Werder Bremen
League starts: 4
Still technically a Chelsea player, Pizarro was further proof
that Mourinho, for all his merits and with the exception of Didier
Drogba, had trouble identifying goalscorers. The Peruvian scored on
his debut but after the departure of the Portuguese coach and the
January signing of Nicolas Anelka, he was deemed surplus to
requirements and loaned out to Werder Bremen, where he had made his
name at the start of the decade, having found the net just once
more.