Posted July 18, 200915 yr Dan Petrescu (1995-2000) Written by Loz in January 2008 Dan ‘The Man’ Petrescu, ‘Pet Rescue’ to his fans, Daniel Vasile Petrescu to his parents, ‘Git’ to the Sheffield Wednesday fans! When I think of Chelsea players that I have seen playing live and I think about which ones genuinely had a feeling of affection for the club, and the club’s fans Dan Petrescu sits right at the top of the pile. I would probably say that the only other players since the early 80s who I would put alongside Dan in this regard are Kerry Dixon, Gianfranco Zola, Dennis Wise and John Bumstead. That isn’t to say that the likes of Di Matteo, Gudjohnsen, Johnsen, Cudicini and a fair few others don’t come across as having a passion for the club, just saying that these five are the ones I would say had the most. Petrescu was born on December 22nd, 1967 in Bucharest, a city certainly not shy of football as it is home to no less than five teams in the top flight of Romanian football and also a number of others in the lower divisions (not sure exactly how many). That is the same number of top flight teams as there are in London (OK six if you count Reading but soon to be five again if Fulham keep losing!) but with Bucharest only just over a quarter of the population of London. Anyway this is beginning to sound like the Travellers Guide you wish you hadn’t bought off ebay. The most successful of these clubs, and in fact the most successful Romanian club full stop, is Steaua Bucharest and it was here that Dan kick started his career, initially with the youth team before making the step up to the first team in 1986. This was an era of great success for Steaua, they had won the 1985/86 domestic title (the second of five back to back wins) and had just been crowned champions of Europe by beating Barcelona on penalties (the first Eastern European team to win it) . Given the quality of the team it was no great surprise that a 19 year old kid from the youth team struggled to break into the first team and Dan was sent out on loan to FC Olt for the 1986/87 season. Steaua’s European Cup exploits were not a flash in the pan affair, they reached the semi finals in 1988 and then the final in 1989 losing to Benfica and AC Milan respectively, with the 1989 final being a particular thumping when a Gullit, Van Basten and Rijkaard inspired Milan team put four past Steaua without reply. Gullit was substituted after sixty minutes with the game already won and received a standing ovation to mark one of the finest ever individual performances in a major European cup final. Petrescu played a key role in both these cup runs and despite the comprehensive thrashing in the final the early tournament plaudits had gone to the Steaua side and, in particular their talisman Gheorghe Hagi. They hammered (on aggregate) Sparta Prague 7-3, Spartak Moscow 5-1, Gothenborg 5-2 and put another five goals past Galatasary in the semi final. However few teams could have lived with that Milan team and Petrescu’s Bucharest side were not one of them! On a brighter note 1989 was also the season Dan made his international debut for Romania kick starting an international career that would see him win 95 caps and represent his country at two World Cups (1994 and 1998) and also at Euro 96 and 2000. Romania did well in the 1994 World Cup in the USA topping their group before knocking out Argentina in the last 16. They went out in the quarter finals on penalties to Sweden with Petrescu unfortunately missing his spot kick (the other culprit being Miodrag Belodedici). Euro 96 was decidedly less successful as Romania failed to register a single point, and only one goal, in their three group matches. The 1998 World Cup in France pitted Romania against England in Group G with the match between the two sides determining who topped the group and who came runners up. The significance of this was that the group winners would face Croatia in the last 16 whereas the runners up would face Argentina. Romania came out on top in a 2-1 win with the winning goal seeing Petrescu skinning Chelsea colleague Graeme Le Saux before knocking the ball through David Seaman’s legs in the 90th minute (as it turned out Romania were beaten 1-0 by Croatia in the next round whilst England went out on penalties to Argentina – that Sol Campbell header should never have been chalked off – bloody Shearer and his elbows). Euro 2000 again saw England drawn in the same group as Romania, again England lost to them with Romania topping the group and England failing to qualify despite beating old rivals Germany. In 1991 Dan was signed by Italian side Foggia, who had just won the Serie B title and were looking to consolidate their newly found status as a top flight side (something they did until 1995 before dropping down, and yet to return). They approached Serie A with something of a gung ho all out attack philosophy and this suited Petrescu’s game perfectly. In their first season they achieved a respectable 9th place finish and even coped with the selling of Giuseppe Signori to Lazio in 1992 whilst maintaining a safe mid table position for the next two seasons. After making 55 appearances for Foggia Petrescu moved to Genoa at the start of the 1993/94 season. Other than making 24 first team appearances I am not too sure what else Dan did there other than eating a lot of ice cream down at the harbour (well that is what I did there and it did my international football career no harm). In the summer of 1994 Dan packed his bags and headed off to Sheffield to play for Wednesday and learn all about the fine art of making cutlery. Dan impressed for Wednesday in his debut season in England and caught the eye of then Chelsea manager Glen Hoddle who was impressed by Dan’s technical ability and the versatility he provided in being to operate anywhere on the right hand side of the pitch. Glen’s liking of wing backs meant Dan was a perfect fit for the first team (in fact it actually meant Glen had an orthodox wing back rather than just asking full backs to play there) and Ken Bates was persuaded to part with £2.3m to secure the transfer. When he left Wednesday to join Chelsea he was asked why he was making the move (you must remember that although we had finished marginally above Wednesday in the 94/95 season they had finished comfortably above us in the preceding two seasons and coming to us from them was not seen as a major career step) and he answered that he thought Chelsea played far more stylish football (or words to that effect) – this made him as popular with the Wednesday fans as Lofty is with the Merseyside Tourist Board. One person at Chelsea who was maybe less enamoured by the signing of Petrescu was Steve Clarke who found his first team opportunities limited due to Dan’s performances and Glen's liking of wing backs. Dan made his Chelsea debut in November 1995 however the less said about that the better as we lost 1-0 away at Leeds. Yes Leeds, they were once a half decent side you know. His first Chelsea goal was the winner against table topping Newcastle in December 1995 and he played no small part in our FA Cup run which culminated in semi final defeat at the hands of Manchester United. In the quarter final we faced Wimbledon and Dan’s performance on the night was only eclipsed by the same man who had given him such a torrid time in the 1989 European Cup Final, but at least this time Ruud was playing for the same side. Dan put us one up with a shot from an acute angle which rose into the roof of the net and he was also brought down as he broke into the box to earn us a penalty which Dennis Wise missed. The 1996/97 season saw Glen Hoddle move on to the England job and the promotion of Ruud Gullit from player to player/manager and with that came the influx of players such as Gianfranco Zola, Di Matteo, and Gianluca Vialli. Despite these changes in personnel Ruud pretty much stuck to Glen’s pattern of play giving Dan the opportunity solidify his place in the first team. This he did with some style as the level of his performances seemed to increase, possibly inspired by the football we were now playing due to the combination of Ruud’s management and the quality if the players in our squad. The only real surprise of the season for Dan was when Ruud selected Erland Johnsen ahead of him for the FA Cup semi final against Wimbledon, choosing, rather unusually for us, to play three centre halves. Of the seven FA Cup games we played that season this was the only one Dan didn’t feature in. Ruud later explained that he had decided to go with that approach to combat the ‘hoof it high and hoof it long’ approach of Wimbledon. In fairness to Ruud he got it spot on, Chelsea won comfortably by 3-0 and after the game Petrescu was reinstated in the first team where he remained for the rest of the season including playing as a right sided midfielder in the 2-0 FA Cup win over Middlesbrough. The 1997/98 season saw Dan moved into a right sided midfield position on a far more regular basis. Dan took to it like a scouser to a corner shop robbery scoring in three consecutive games in August (including an exquisite lob from 20 yards that caught Paul Jones off his line and went in off the far post as we beat Southampton 4-2) and adding further league goals later in the season at Three Point Lane with an elegant lob over the stranded Ian Walker (remember it folks 6-1 – happy bloody days eh!) and against his former employers in a 4-1 win at Hillsbrough. Chelsea finished that Premiership season in a very credible 4th position however it was to be the cup tournaments that brought us the greatest joy. Dan started the 1998 League Cup triumph over Middlesbrough before being replaced by Steve Clarke however possibly the most memorable Petrescu moment from that campaign was his cracking goal against Arsenal in the semi-final which helped secure a 4-3 aggregate win. Six weeks after lifting the League Cup Dennis Wise was hoisting more silverware over his excessively closer to the ground head when we triumphed in the European Cup Winners Cup with a solitary Zola goal being enough to beat Stuttgart. As with the League Cup final Petrescu was to start and not finish the game however this time his not finishing was due to being ridiculously sent off for an innocuous challenge in the 84th minute. The 1998/99 season was pretty much a case of more of the same for Dan (but without the silverware). Although not an ever present in the first team he was still very much a regular and played a key role in helping Chelsea secure their highest ever Premiership finish, 3rd place thus earning the club a Champions League spot for the following season. The 1999/00 season was to be the one where the sh*t didn’t just hit the fan, it bounced back out and made permanent stains on the priceless Lombardian rug. It all started rather well for the team in general and Dan on a personal level. He scored in the league against Wimbledon (he had a very fine habit of doing that) and scored a vital winner against Galatasary in the Champions League helping us reach the quarter finals in our first year in the tournament. Furthermore we ended up back at Wembley in the FA Cup but it was a slump in our league form which was to prove costly for Dan. In April 2000 Dan scored against Manchester United but was substituted late on as we ended up losing 3-2. Dan didn’t take too kindly to being given the hook and didn’t hang around for the final whistle. Vialli was livid and dropped Petrescu like something you drop and he was to never pull on a Chelsea jersey again. When we played Villa in the FA Cup final he didn’t even feature in the first 16. At the end of the season he was sold to Bradford City for £1m and on arriving said: "The club (Chelsea) have treated me very well for the last five years. I was very happy there, and the club treated me fantastically, the chairman and Colin Hutchinson, but unfortunately they don't pick the team. I'm not happy if I'm not playing, and that's why I wanted to come here. Vialli has his ideas about football, and I have my ideas and I wish him good luck." He only lasted four months at Bradford as he failed to find any kind of form with many Bradford fans suspecting he has lost his appetite for the game after leaving Chelsea. Glen Hoddle, now Southampton manager, moved in for his old favourite and signed him for £800k (although Bradford only received £100k as the rest went to paying off the remaining three years of Petrescu’s contract) in January 2001. Under Hoddle (who had tried to sign Dan from Chelsea before he moved to Bradford), Dan’s career seemed to have a little bit of life again however Hoddle’s departure for Tottenham and subsequent appointment of Gordon Strachan as Southampton manager was the beginning of the end of Dan’s Southampton career and he was released in July 2002. After that he returned to Romania to play for a year for FC National. Dan then moved into football management and between 2004 and 2006 had spells with Rapid Bucharest, Sportul Studenţesc, Wisła Kraków before taking on his current post in 2006 with Unirea Urziceni. Being brutally honest his track record as a manager so far is not something to get excited about so the chances of ever seeing him at the helm of the Good Ship Chelsea are pretty damn slim! Dan always speaks with great fondness of his time at Chelsea and considers it to be the best time he had in his playing career. During his time at the club he lived only five minutes from the ground at Chelsea harbour and he named his daughter Chelsea. Even when things turned sour with Vialli he made it perfectly clear he had no wish to leave Chelsea. Some will point to the demise of his career at Bradford and Southampton as vindication of Luca’s decision to let him go however I tend to agree with the Bradford fans who thought that leaving Chelsea was an emotional wrench that he never fully recovered from. I see similarities between Dan’s decline and the decline of the career’s of Damien Duff and Eidur Gudjohnsen, players who probably played their very best football for Chelsea and who left not of their own accord but because they no longer had a place in the manager’s plans.
