21 minutes ago, strider6004 said:

For sure they were key moments in the game. 

All the defenders that stood in when Terry was sent off and missed the final also deserve recognition too considering the opposition. 

Great team spirit. 

Understatement! It was an incredible effort by our 10 men to keep them out.

I feel this thread could be updated from 2022.

On 07/02/2022 at 11:41, Zeta said:

Veron - One mediocre season and then impossible to get rid of.
Torres - A few important goals, but otherwise absolutely awful
Bakayoko - The less said the better
Drinkwater - What were we thinking? (Or drinking)
Lukaku - 100m down the drain to make us a worse team

Special shoutout for the OG of terrible transfers: Winston Bogarde
 

2026 edition, based on pure cost at the time, and impact.

1. Lukaku

2. Mudryk

3. Bakayoko

4. Felix

5. Lavia

Edited March 28Mar 28 by Zeta

We spent £70m on Kepa when in all reality we couldn’t have done any worse using any GK we had in our youth ranks.

Hate that man.

Kepa

Lukaku

Bakayoko

Drinkwater

Bogarde

There should be a space for Jamie Gittens

Kepa was expensive but has contributed.

Edited March 28Mar 28 by OTL

In no particular order. Fleck, Fleck, Fleck, Fleck, Fleck, Fleck, Fleck and Fleck

1. Kepa. World record fee when that fee would have been enough to get any of the top tier keepers out of their club. We refused to go above 60 million for Alison the week before.

2. Bakayoko. Monaco sold their whole midfield which was a very good midfield. We signed the imposter.

3. Lukaku. A magnificently limited player who thought everyone owed him something.

4. Shevchenko. Ballon winner and a magnificent finisher…… at Milan and Dynamo Kiev.

5. Sutton. Looked completely out of his depth at Chelsea to the point where sometimes he didn’t even look like a footballer. Confusing as he did well for all his other clubs.

Edited March 28Mar 28 by 19seventyone

1. Lakaka. All the evidence was there before we spunked a ridiculous sum of money on him but we still did and then acted surprised that along with being a sh*t footballer he turned out to be a sh*t person as well

2. Bakayoko - Pretty sure this was a social experiment and a different person entirely to who was at Monaco came over on his passport

3. Fofana - The fee. The wages. The injuries. The attitude.

4. Drinkwater - Fair play to the bloke in all fairness.

5. Gittens - Epitomy of the BlueCo strategy, he’s never even looked like an academy player let alone a 60M+ PL baller.

In years to come Liam Delap might challenge for a place in this group. £30 million isnt much but nor has his contribution been. Totally out of his depth. Clueless.

6 hours ago, timetowaste said:

Kepa

Lukaku

Bakayoko

Drinkwater

Bogarde

It’s hard to top this. I might swap drinkwater for Mudryk, Mutu, Shevchenko, SWP, Datro Fofana, De Lucas, Di Santo, Fleck, Morata, Kezman, Veron, Bosnich, Sutton, but Drinkwater takes some beating

Top five signings? Has to include Frank, Drogs, Hazard, Zola and one open!

1. Lukaku

2. Kepa

3. Wesley Fofana

4. Garnacho

5. Sutton

All grade A a$$h*les who don't/didn't give any respect to the club.

Pound for Pound

Mudryk - Waste of 60-80m. Drug cheat. Signed him because Arsenal wanted him, makes this transfer much worse

Kept- 70m worse keeping transfer in football history

Enzo Fernandez- Record 100m signing for a bang average footballer thats no better than Drinkwater or KDH. For his position and hype, he should at least be winning us a handful of games on his own and setting an example

Sanchez- 30m for a keeper dropped by Brighton to be our number one and prove our concerns right

Fofana - 70m for an injury crock defender. All that fuss with his medical and he still messed up.

There are so many others including Disasi, Badishile, Delap, Gittens (close to including him) and Lukaku (at least he starred on fire before that dumb interview) but these 5 are actual disasters.

On 28/03/2026 at 23:54, PhilH930 said:

It’s hard to top this. I might swap drinkwater for Mudryk, Mutu, Shevchenko, SWP, Datro Fofana, De Lucas, Di Santo, Fleck, Morata, Kezman, Veron, Bosnich, Sutton, but Drinkwater takes some beating

Top five signings? Has to include Frank, Drogs, Hazard, Zola and one open!

Kante most definitely. I'll take out Zola and put in Cech just for what he did in 2012. He had no right to win us the CL on his end.

Edited March 30Mar 30 by KonaKai Blue

I get why people bring up fees (which probably puts Mudryk right in the conversation... Lavia too), but I will ignore that here.

I really can’t put these two anywhere else—they’re in a league of their own (no particular order):

1. Bakayoko

2. Tal Ben Haim

Ben Haim came in when the club wasn’t exactly swimming in cash, but wow, he did not look like a professional footballer and certainly did not play like one. 😅

Bakayoko though… I’m not sure I’ve seen a midfielder at this level where the ball seemed so determined to escape him. Watching the football bounce off his shins made Lukaku’s first touch look WC.

3 hours ago, acaeus said:

I get why people bring up fees (which probably puts Mudryk right in the conversation... Lavia too), but I will ignore that here.

I really can’t put these two anywhere else—they’re in a league of their own (no particular order):

1. Bakayoko

2. Tal Ben Haim

Ben Haim came in when the club wasn’t exactly swimming in cash, but wow, he did not look like a professional footballer and certainly did not play like one. 😅

Bakayoko though… I’m not sure I’ve seen a midfielder at this level where the ball seemed so determined to escape him. Watching the football bounce off his shins made Lukaku’s first touch look WC.

That was more that Abramovich and Mourinho threw their toys out of the pram. We spent plenty the season before, and we made the CL final in the same season.

Ben Haim is an interesting one. Terry said on Obi Mikel's podcast that he was just a 'weird' guy who never really fit in with the squad. Apparently he was really angry and aggressive in training, all the time, and often went way too hard in on Drogba & co in small sided games, and refused to back down. Being Israeli, we all assumed he was Avram Grant's guy (as DOF) but at the end of the season Ben Haim said that he wouldn't have come to Chelsea if he'd known Grant was to be the manager, not Mourinho!

1. Pedro Lomba Neto

2. Chris Sutton

3. Kepa

4. Bogarde

5. Fofana

HM: Bakayoko, Lukaka

Edited March 31Mar 31 by GarnachoCheese

Can’t really include the Blueco era, as it’s all bad really, aside from the flukes, like Palmer. The only non-fluke was Caicedo as he was Prem-ready, just a shame about his tackling, most likely will always be a liability.

Agree on Kepa as 1st, the background around the transfer, Alison etc, and the long-term ramifications of that decision really set us back, Lukaku return a close second.

Another 3 contenders.

Gazpacho, Mudryk, Ambrosetti.

A 9 year old school girl could slap the piss out of all of them. All at the same time.

Kepa, world record fee? How the f**k did that happen.

In no particular order. Robert Fkeck. Robert Fleck. Robert Fleck.

Just now, Timmy Elms said:

In no particular order. Robert Fkeck. Robert Fleck. Robert Fleck.

Apologies for spelling mistake. Need to invest in some windows

1: Paul Winstanley

2: Laurence Stewart

3: Ben Roberts

4: Sam Jewell

5: Joe Shields

I'd say Kepa but it has been slightly mitigated by later inflicting him upon Arsenal. Makes Bobby Sánchez look like Lev Yashin.

On 29/03/2026 at 00:34, axman2526 said:

1. Lukaku

2. Kepa

3. Wesley Fofana

4. Garnacho

5. Sutton

All grade A a$$h*les who don't/didn't give any respect to the club.

I'd have Sterling ahead of Garnacho and Sutton. Nothing personal, but just a very bad signing at crazy wages. Agree with your top two.