Chelsea transfer flops (Part Two)

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Continuing the series looking at some of the biggest transfer flops in the Premier League era at Chelsea.

For Part One please click here.

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Winston Bogarde 2000

This Dutch defender came to symbolise the worst traits of modern footballers.

He joined Chelsea on a free transfer in 2000 from Barcelona and the London club promptly put him on huge wages for the time of £40,000 a week. He failed to make the grade in West London and only made four starts in four years, but attempts to move him only failed, because Bogarde was happy to stay where he was, picking up his money each week for essentially doing nothing.

Bogarde even joked about hs situation, saying : Few people will ever earn so much. I am one of the few fortunate people who do. I may be one of the worst buys in the history of the Premiership, but I don’t care.”

When his contract finally expired, he quit football because no other club would sign him. Still, he had made his millions by then.

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Mark Bosnich 2001

In January 2001 Chelsea signed goalkeeper Mark Bosnich on a free transfer from Manchester United, offering him a three and a half year deal, even though he was warned that he faced tough competition at Stamford Bridge.

However, due to problems with his fitness and injury he did not make his first-team debut until the following season, and then was injured in a league game against Everton in November 2001,

It was to be his last game for the club.

Captain John Terry had warned him in front of the entire squad that he was associating with the wrong sort of people off the pitch, but Bosnich did not heed the warning. He failed a drugs test for cocaine and was handed a nine month suspension by the FA.

Chelsea immediately terminated his contract worth £55,000 a week.

He later admitted to taking over 10g of cocaine a day and was spending close to £3,000 a week on his habit. Bosnich’s girlfriend at the time, model Sophie Anderton later confessed to selling her body to support hr own cocaine habit.

Bosnich retired from the game at the age of only 31 and became a recluse, before eventually getting himself clean and returning to football in hs native Australia five years later.  

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Fernando Torres 2011

When Liverpool signed Striker Fernando Torres from Atlético Madrid in 2007, they bought a player who would take the Premier League by storm in the following years. He scored 65 goals in 102 league appearances for the Anfield side, and helped Spain win the European Championship, and the World Cup two years later.

The only problem was that Liverpool were going through a trophy drought at this time, and frustrated by his lack of domestic silverware, forced through a move to Chelsea in January 2011, who were happy to pay a then British record of £50 million for such a proven goalscorer.

However, he just did not flourish in West London, and his time with the club was blighted by injuries and a decline in form.

He did win the Champions League with them in 2013, and it was his vital goal in the semi-final with Barcelona that got them to the final, but 45 goals in 172 appearances  was a disappointing return on Chelsea’s investment, and he was eventually sent on loan to AC Milan.