Carvalho, Ricardo (1994-2010)

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Ricardo Carvalho (1994-2010)

Written by Loz and last updated September 2010

'Ricky!!! That boy's driving me mad Pat!! (apologies to anyone who has never seen Eastenders) That is a cry that you could have easily imagined Frank Butcher shouting about Carvalho in his first season at Chelsea however since then he has improved considerably and is now a vital part of our defence.

Ricardo Alberto Silveira Carvalho started as a youth player at a little club called Leca. I can't find too much info on that period of his career so moving swiftly on...

Carvalho's professional career kicked off with Porto not long after his 20th birthday. As a lad he was tipped for great things so it seemed inevitable that he would settle in quickly at

Porto and establish himself in the first team. However Ricky was to take time to settle and establish himself and in this period he spent a period on loan with Portuguese team Vitoria Setubal and in the French league with Rennes.

Once he did settle into the Porto team he began to show signs of that early promise and under the tutelage of Jose Mourinho he had his finest season for Porto in 2003-04 helping them to glory in the Portuguese Superliga and a remarkable achievement winning the UEFA Champions League. That season he was voted as the best defender in the Champions League.

The appointment of Mourinho as Claudio Ranieri's replacement in the Chelsea hot seat led to typical speculation about who would be leaving Porto for Chelsea, as it transpired it was Carvalho and fellow Portuguese defender Paulo Ferreira who made the trip to SW6, Carvalho for a whopping fee just shy of £20m.

Carvalho had a mixed debut season. In terms of team success there can be no complaints as Chelsea won their first domestic title since 1955 however on a personal level Carvalho suffered from two factors. The first his seeming ability to play very well for 89 minutes and then make a howler of an error (usually allowing a ball to sail over his head or rushing out of position to try and nick the ball away from the opposition).

The second being unfortunate enough to have to live up to comparisons with William Gallas who, for all his moaning, is possibly the most technically gifted centre half Chelsea have ever had. Carvalho's second season pretty much mirrored his first, another title, the unfavourable comparisons with Gallas and his tendency to ruin an otherwise good performance with a characteristic error. It is worth stating that despite these errors Carvalho was still a first class centre half, being unfavourably compared to Gallas is not exactly a major criticism.

It was to be the 2006-07 season when Carvalho was to prove just how talented a defender he is. With Gallas sold to Arsenal and defensive partner and club captain John Terry suffering an injury interrupted season it was time for Carvalho to take on a level of responsibility that had never been asked of him before in a Chelsea shirt. He responded superbly and although Chelsea were to fail to retain their title Carvalho was a key player throughout a season that saw success in the League Cup and FA Cup and also a runners up spot in the league and semi finalists in the Champions League. Only a sublime season by Didier Drogba and Michael Essien pushed Carvalho into third position in the Chelsea Player of the Year award.

On May 18th he signed a new five year contract meaning it is fairly safe to say he will be a key player in the heart of the Chelsea defence for the next few years at least. Into 2007/08 and with John Terry picking up an injury in pre-season which threatened to keep him out for the best part of a month (although it transpired to be much less than this) it looked like Carvalho was going to have to carry on being the rock in the centre of the Chelsea defence. However the start to the 2007/08 season did not go to plan for him as he picked up an injury half an hour into the second game of the season away at Reading which he didn't recover from for six weeks.

And what a recovery! Thrown in at the deep end with a starting berth against Valencia away in the Champions League Carvalho out in what I considered to be a man of the match performance (although the good folk on the Shed End voted for Didier Drogba). He followed this with three solid performances in the Premiership, including a fine performance alongside Alex in the 2-0 win over Middlesbrough, however an awkward fall in the first half against Everton resulted in a further six week lay off with Carvalho not returning until the 2-0 Carling Cup quarter final win over Liverpool on December 19th. As seems to be Chelsea's luck over the past season and a half, Carvalho's return coincided with John Terry breaking bones in his foot (courtesy of a reckless challenge by Arsenal's Eboue) meaning it will be at least another six weeks before Chelsea can call on their first choice centre half pairing.

In the very next game, away at Ewood park in the Premiership, Carvalho marshalled the defence superbly alongside Alex, especially after Chelsea's injury curse struck again with Cech being forced off and replaced by Hilario in the second half. As his hair grows less wild, well just grows less by the looks of things, his consistency seems to increase. This goes a long way to explaining why Robbie Savage is so sh*t. Just as things were looking good again another period of absence was to rear its ugly head however this time it was entirely Carvalho's doing. In the 4-4 Boxing day draw with Aston Villa he picked up a straight red card for a very poor two footed tackle on Agbonlahor which he apologised for after the match.

He returned in our 2-0 win over Tottenham and was soon back on form with a solid performance then and also against Birmingham in the next match. It is interesting to note that the excellent form shown by Alex has caused people to ask whether John Terry should walk straight back into the first team on his return from injury. Nobody has every really questioned whether Carvalho should be the one to step aside.

Carvalho was probably one of very few players to come out of our Carling Cup defeat with his credibility marginally intact. He followed up this performance with another trademark display against West Ham in our 4-0 win at Upton Park, a performance which won him my vote as man of the match. Not something I can say for his next run out when he, and in fairness, the rest of the team were diabolical as Chelsea were knocked out of the FA Cup by Barnsley. Carvalho and JT struggled, throughout the game, to deal with nothing more than a big honest, but decidedly average, centre forward who was to go on to score the only goal of the game.

On March 30th, 2008 Riccy scored his solitary goal of the 2007/08 season when he bagged the only goal in a 1-0 win over Middlesbrough. As the season drew to a close we kept ourselves in the fight for the title with a 2-1 win Man Utd, a game which saw Carvalho make his 100th appearance for the club. His consistency over the season resulted in him being voted as Chelsea's player's player of the year. He also got my vote for fan's player of the year but came third behind winner Joe Cole and runner up Michael Ballack. The season climaxed, like Tim W (allegedly) disappointingly with Man Utd winning the title and beating us on penalties in the Champions League final.

Ricky dusted himself down and headed off to Austria and Switzerland to represent Portugal in Euro 2008 alongside Chelsea team mate Paulo Ferreira, soon to be team mate Bosingwa and, as it transpired, soon to be team mate Deco and soon to be club manager Felipe Scolari. A Portugal side packed with talent started the tournament well and cruised through their qualifying group only losing the last game to Switzerland once they had already secured qualification and were resting players. In the quarter finals they looked like a shadow of the team they had been up till that point and were knocked out by a Michael Ballack inspired Germany 3-2. By this time Chelsea had already announced Scolari was taking over from Avram Grant as the new Chelsea manager and this appointment appears to have gone some way to satisfying Carvalho who had started to make some noises about considering his future at Chelsea.

The history books will show that, as it transpired, the appointment of Scolari was as successful as Ben Johnson's sprinting comeback. Our own experience will show that history was being generous. For Riccy it was a double whammy as, not only did we slump as a team, he had a dreadful 2008/09 season due to a succession of injuries. He only made 18 appearances in all competitions and missed out on Chelsea's 2009 FA Cup win over Everton. Meanwhile Alex was establishing himself in the heart of the Chelsea defence alongside club captain John Terry.

In the summer of 2009 their were strong rumour linking Carvalho with a move to Inter Milan to join up, once again, with Jose Mourinho. Carvalho made it clear he would accept a move to regain first team football but would also be happy to stay at Chelsea. The move never transpired with Mourinho claiming Chelsea had bumped up the price once they knew he was interested. 'Thank bloody God' is all I can say (not strictly true, my grasp of vocabulary is actually reasonably good). Carvalho started the 2009/10 season with a man of the match performance in our Community Shield win over Manchester United and carried on turning in performances which reminded us all that Man City didn't know their arse from their elbow when they forked out £24m for Joleon Lescott from Everton.

Carvalho spent the first two thirds of the 2009/10 season as a first choice centre half alongside John Terry until he suffered ankle ligament damage in a 5-0 win over Portsmouth in March. He missed the remainder of the season including our FA Cup win and, as it transpired that Pompey game was his last ever game in a Chelsea shirt. After picking up his third Premiership winners medal Carvalho was once again tempted to join up with ex manager Jose Mourinho, this time with Real Madrid rather than Inter Milan and Chelsea decided the time was right to let him move on with thanks for a lot of years of great service. Real Madrid paid £6.7 million for him which, given that he was 32 years old and had suffered from a number of injuries over an extended period, can be considered a pretty decent fee.

If, and when, he returns to the Bridge, possibly on Champions League duty he deserves nothing more than a fabulous welcome.