The brilliant welcome to Gazza at the weekend, reminded me what a bargain he was and whether he is the best of the cheaper transfers (excluding academy obvs) over the last 20 years.

So if to qualify, transfer has to be less than £10m, and player must get to 100 appearances minimum, who are the contenders?

I've come up with Gazza, Azpi and Ivan................in that order, although just remebered Cesc too, and Pedro........

Gazza for me

We purchased Pedro for 27M and Cesc was 30+ as well. But for me, its gotta be Ashley Cole, right? 7M for the best left back in the world is tough to beat for sure. I couldn't remember all of our transfers so I did a little perusing here if anyone cares:  https://www.transfermarkt.com/fc-chelsea/alletransfers/verein/631

I know fans turned against him, but Gallas was a steal for 6 million.  Cudicini for 300 grand. 

3 minutes ago, chiefBlueCFC said:

We purchased Pedro for 27M and Cesc was 30+ as well. But for me, its gotta be Ashley Cole, right? 7M for the best left back in the world is tough to beat for sure. I couldn't remember all of our transfers so I did a little perusing here if anyone cares:  https://www.transfermarkt.com/fc-chelsea/alletransfers/verein/631

We sold Michael Hector to Fulham for €8.9m??  ?

Hazard,

Bought £32m >

PFA Young Player of the Year: 2013–14

Premier League Player of the Season: 2014–15

PFA Premier League Team of the Year: 2012–13, 2013–14, 2014–15, 2016–17

PFA Fans' Player of the Year: 2018–19

Sold> £100m - approx 300% profit.

1 hour ago, ws6blue said:

The brilliant welcome to Gazza at the weekend, reminded me what a bargain he was and whether he is the best of the cheaper transfers (excluding academy obvs) over the last 20 years.

So if to qualify, transfer has to be less than £10m, and player must get to 100 appearances minimum, who are the contenders?

I've come up with Gazza, Azpi and Ivan................in that order, although just remebered Cesc too, and Pedro........

Gazza for me

Please don't call him Gazza 

Keeping club legends like Matt Miazga and Michael Hector out of contention, it's obviously Carlo Cudicini.

As great a servant he was i wouldn't say Ashley Cole purely for three reason's.

1. £7m plus the value of a top CB for a fullback (even the best one) wasn't really a bargain back in 2006.

2. We got the better deal long term but short term it cost us getting a hatrick of titles, we were barely able to field JT and Ricky together all season which led to us having to put Essien at CB, a move which weakened us in two key areas.

3. We only got two years of absolute peak and top performing Ash, the first two years I didn't feel there was much difference between him and Bridge in performances and the last four he lost his attacking edge almost completely.

When you factor in inflation, Kovacic at £35m could well be looked at as a huge bargain in years to come, that money barely gets you a solid midtable player these days yet Kova is showing signs he could be a hitting a bonafide world class level. 

1 hour ago, Argo said:

When you factor in inflation, Kovacic at £35m could well be looked at as a huge bargain

doesn't fit the original qualifying standards of less than 10M, but if you wanted to up the ante, I'd put Kante in that discussion. he was had for about 35.

I always think of Azpi when these discussions come up. 

We certainly got good value for Cahill as well.

37 minutes ago, Skinnedy said:

doesn't fit the original qualifying standards of less than 10M, but if you wanted to up the ante, I'd put Kante in that discussion. he was had for about 35.

 

Up it further with 11 million for our current manager. Bargain of the century!

Petr Cech. Widely reported at the time as 7m. Beat that!

Edited November 12, 20196 yr by Crapbag

Lampard £11m 

Tore Andre Flo, about £200k I think. 

Zola 

And the biggest waste of money prize  has to go to Mr sitting on my arse for 40k a week.

1 hour ago, Dixons said:

And the biggest waste of money prize  has to go to Mr sitting on my arse for 40k a week.

You need to be more specific. 

A.Cole is probably one of the best signings overall, not only by looking at the fee but also when you put in context that he was a part of the Arsenal's invicibles, his whole transfer saga and the fact that he's a domestic player. Today to get such a player with/for such a price, and from a rival, simply impossible. 

Edited November 12, 20196 yr by Gol15

2 hours ago, Dixons said:

And the biggest waste of money prize  has to go to Mr sitting on my arse for 40k a week.

Winston?!

Ballack... For free. 

Poyet, Vialli, Gullit all free, Mark Hughes can't recall the exact fee.

Joe Cole was £8.9M according to Transfermarket UK site ... ( https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/fc-chelsea/alletransfers/verein/631 ) that was a great deal ... I'll vote for him as my #1.

Honourable mentions to Dave, Cahill and Carlo, as already mentioned, plus Eidur Gudjohnsen at £6.75M in 2000/01 season..

Ivanovic is out of scope if he was £10.8M (which Transfermarkt quote as the fee), though I'm sure I remember it as less than that at the time.

Some others mentioned above signed over 20 years ago, so also don't fit your criteria.

Edited November 13, 20196 yr by Sexyfootball

Eidur Gudjohnsen

126 appearances and 78 goals - cost £4m

 

42 minutes ago, Strider6003 said:

Eidur Gudjohnsen

126 appearances and 78 goals - cost £4m

 

A great signing but not quite THAT great ... more like 263 appearances ...  ?

3 hours ago, Bonzodog29 said:

Ballack... For free. 

I’d agree this was a sensational bit of the business from the club (not so much the letting him go after). 
 

But if it was based on players we actually paid a fee on, for me it’d be Azpilicueta and Cahill. Particularly Azpi because he’s the most recent so prices were the closest to what they are today and to get him for £7m I believe it was is quite staggering for the service he’s given to Chelsea.

10 hours ago, EdinburghBlue said:

I’d agree this was a sensational bit of the business from the club (not so much the letting him go after). 

I disagree with that, it was the right time to leave, the mistake was came though not replacing him.

20 hours ago, Sexyfootball said:

A great signing but not quite THAT great ... more like 263 appearances ...  ?

I took my stats from here:

http://www.bounder.friardale.co.uk/Appearances/Gp-Gz.htm

League 126 appearances with 54 goals,

Overall in all competitions,

177 Appearances with 78 goals.