A nice topic of discussion for my first post: who do you think is the most underrated player - past or present - to play for the Chels. 

My choices would be Ramires (Champions League hero) and Caballero (always puts in a great performance). 

Interested to hear your thoughts!

Edited February 12, 20215 yr by Joseph

Hmm, tricky. 

I thought at one point Alex was a very underrated defender for us., very underappreciated, and I loved his freekicks.

Ivanovic I think was underrated, some might disagree. I personally thought Ivanovic at one point around 2009-2012 was the best RB in the world defensively, absolutely solid as a rock. I still remember his performance against Luis Nani at the Bridge in 2010, Nani wasn't the same again, he completely broke him. Then Mourinho turned him into a great offensive right back, and he stopped his defensive duties because he kept getting forward, he was so underrated going forward. On top of that the guy won us so many important games, big games also, like his winner against City in the title race.

Demba Ba was also a great backup striker, his goals to minutes ratio is actaully very good, Mourinho just kept putting him on with 1 minute left in the game. Ba scored some important goals while here and was always reliable. His goals against United, PSG and Liverpool were very memorable goals, which is amazing for a striker with such a short spell here. It's funny because backup strikers usually do a better job than our main strikers here. 

Loic Remy another one, I thought Remy was very reliable when Costa wasn't firing for that season, usually always came up with a goal when we needed him, scored a very important one against Hull away that pretty much tipped us for the title. 

Florent Malouda I loved Flo Mo during 08-10, absolutely excellent winger, one of our best at that stage, could do just about everything. It's a shame he didn't give us more seasons while he was here but still a great player in his prime. 

Salomon Kalou is often overshadowed by Drogba, but he had a remarkable career at Chelsea and deserves the odd mention.

18 minutes ago, Slojo said:

Florent Malouda I loved Flo Mo during 08-10, absolutely excellent winger, one of our best at that stage, could do just about everything. It's a shame he didn't give us more seasons while he was here but still a great player in his prime. 

“Florent Malouda-louda-louda, Florent Malouda-louda-louda!”

One of my favourite names to chant ever. 

I want to echo Demba Ba, when he was brought in he was banging them in for Newcastle. If FSW wasn't brought in to help Torres then he would have been first choice.

Unfortunately his confidence never grew from the lack of game time and I always got the sense he felt like he didn't belong.

1 hour ago, coco said:

Salomon Kalou is often overshadowed by Drogba, but he had a remarkable career at Chelsea and deserves the odd mention.

Kalou was a weird one, always came up with that goal but my god, he was unbelievably sh*t a lot of the time, especially towards the end of his career, I remember when AVB subbed him before half time lmao 

Peter "Nobby" Houseman

 

 

 

Good shout on Alex.

I'm going to throw 4 players into the mix for this ...

Tiago, Gallas, Bertrand and Tomori

Tiago was the unsung third midfielder of our first Mourinho title, doing a lot of the positional donkey work alongside Makelele and Lampard, and the scorer of one of my favourite ever goals from distance against Manchester United.

Gallas for me is one of our best ever defenders, in two positions, but he gets a lot of sh*t because he went to Arsenal in the Ashley Cole swap.

Bertrand was an under-rated left back who could have done a job for us as left back for a decade with a bit more trust. He would have saved us about £100M as well (god have we signed some hopeless left backs LOL).

I hope we get Tomori back from his loan, as I rate him above all our current centre backs apart from Thiago Silva.  Don't understand why Lampard didn't give him more opportunity in the last year. His pace is a huge asset.

Edited February 13, 20215 yr by Sexyfootball

7 hours ago, Slojo said:

I remember when AVB subbed him before half time lmao 

AVB , who's that ?    Kalou had the last laugh. 

 

Kurt Zouma - present. Paul Elliott & Joey Jones - past.

9 hours ago, coco said:

Salomon Kalou is often overshadowed by Drogba, but he had a remarkable career at Chelsea and deserves the odd mention.

Kalou was a great sub, but if he started he would never be quite as good. Very under-appreciated though.

Fun fact: I went on a school trip to Berlin where I visited the Olympiastadion, home of Hertha Berlin. I sat in Kalou’s spot in the dressing room when we went on the stadium tour. 

 

Samuel Eto'o, kept delivering in crunch moments and had he not got injured vs Arsenal we'd have won the league possibly CL aswell. He was clearly unfit when he returned after that unfortunately.

Gary Cahill. 

You don't always appreciate what you've got until it's gone. 

John Bumstead/Kevin Wilson back in the day.

1 hour ago, Argo said:

Samuel Eto'o, kept delivering in crunch moments and had he not got injured vs Arsenal we'd have won the league possibly CL aswell. He was clearly unfit when he returned after that unfortunately.

Yes, definitely Gary Cahill, and a shout out as well to Renato Paolo Ferreira, who, for me, was just as good as Carvalho who got all the accolades.  Carvalho I always thought a bit overrated, as every time I watched him defend a corner, I had my fingers crossed that the ref would not focus on him, because it seemed to me that he was always grabbing a player's shirt or shorts and thus could have been whistled for a penalty.

Carlo Cudicini, mostly a sub keeper yet did well when asked to step up.

Anelka signed in the January window as a back up striker yet contributed for 5 seasons in a number of forward roles was always in the shadow of Drogba.

Dan Petrescu a great wing back for us scoring some wonderful goals too.

 

 

3 minutes ago, Phillip said:

Yes, definitely Gary Cahill, and a shout out as well to Renato Paolo Ferreira, who, for me, was just as good as Carvalho who got all the accolades.  Carvalho I always thought a bit overrated, as every time I watched him defend a corner, I had my fingers crossed that the ref would not focus on him, because it seemed to me that he was always grabbing a player's shirt or shorts and thus could have been whistled for a penalty.

I agree on Cavalho seemed to get away with quite a bit.

John Obi Mikel. On his day no one could get past him. And some still don't realise he played a crucial role in Munich. 

Honorable mention to Giroud. 

Mark Schwartzer did well for us during his relatively short time here.

4 minutes ago, Phillip said:

Mark Schwartzer did well for us during his relatively short time here.

Couldn't disagree more, he was needed for the run in after Cech got injured and was out of his depth.

Mark Hughes

Gudjohnsen

ok maybe not underrated but perhaps not mentioned as much as they should be. I see Hughes and then Guddy as key actors in Chelsea’s transition to greatness and they played during some of the most enjoyable years to be a fan. Both would also surely be entries for the best bargain thread that exists somewhere on the forum.

3 hours ago, ForeverCarefree said:

Gary Cahill. 

You don't always appreciate what you've got until it's gone. 

Good shout.

3 hours ago, chi blue said:

John Bumstead/Kevin Wilson back in the day.

I was going to say Nigel Spackman from that team.

6 hours ago, ForeverCarefree said:

Gary Cahill. 

You don't always appreciate what you've got until it's gone. 

I'd hardly call someone who was constantly compared to Terry underrated.

Edited February 13, 20215 yr by Argo