Over the years, Chelsea have made some great signings, and some that haven’t gone quite as well as first hoped.
Back in 2003, when Roman Abramovich had first arrived, a flurry of signings were made by the Stamford Bridge side, including the acquisition of then Parma striker Adrian Mutu.
The player had just come off an unbelievable season with the Serie A side, scoring 22 goals and picking up 12 assists in 36 games, and became highly coveted by Chelsea.
Their new owner decided to splash the cash, spending €19m on the Romanian, who ended up only making 38 appearances in all competitions for Chelsea, scoring 10 goals and picking up six assists.
Mutu was only a Blues player for over a year, as he was sacked in September 2004 by the Premier League side after he tested positive for cocaine, which threw a big spanner in his career.
He built it back up bit by bit, playing for the likes of Juventus and Fiorentina, but he was never quite the same, and he eventually retired in 2016.
The player took part in an interview in his home country, where he talked about his move to Chelsea, and made it clear that if his son was in the same position as him, he wouldn’t push him to transfer to England.
He told the podcast Tare de Tot, relayed by Digisport: “If my son was at that moment, as I was, at Parma, and he had the season I had, being named the best foreigner in Italy, I would not let him go anywhere other than in the same country to much stronger teams.
And I bet that there would be no shortage of offers, taking into account that he would be the best foreigner at 23 years old at Parma, a team in the top five.”
He then added: “I didn’t just have an offer only from Chelsea at that time. Chelsea was something new, they offered even more because Abramovich had entered the market then and was ready to put a million more on any offer. I mean the salary.”
