Chelsea’s first eleven of wasted talent
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Chelsea’s first eleven of wasted talent
Since the arrival of Roman Abramovich in 2003 Chelsea have been able to attract some of the world’s top playing talent, though not every transfer to Stamford Bridge has worked out. As Wayne Bridge prepares to join Manchester City, Telegraph Sport identifies an entire team whose talents were wasted or under-used in West London.
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: 138Cudicini’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: 74When 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: 25The 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: 10Brought 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: 10In 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: 43Wright-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: 8Charlton 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: 7Two 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: 5Not 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: 6The 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: 4Still 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.
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Cudicini's dad played for AC Milan.
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cudicini is really very good.
he should leave chelsea for a first team place.
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Steve Sidwell
Chelsea career: 2007-2008
Signed: Reading, Free
Sold: Aston Villa, £5 million
League starts: 7Two 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.
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL! -
I got a feeling cudicini might be the next to go...offer 10million bid, manc!
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cudicini is wasting his time at chelsea
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damien duff, robben, shevchenko? malouda?
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Originally posted by gunner77:
cudicini is wasting his time at chelsea
Or we should say he has wasted his time at Chelsea... Cos since the time he arrived, he was just a 26 yrs old but now he is already 35 and still playing 2nd choice... Wasted almost 10 yrs of his playing career...
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maybe cudicini should go over to newcastle if given leave. cudicini should be playing first team football.
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cudicini was reported to be very happy in a paper report some time back, he even got his commercial pilot license....i also want.....lol