10 Chelsea signings in the Abramovich era that failed

Roman Abramovich has overseen a fair share of transfer duds at ChelseaChelsea have a track record of splurging in the transfer window, and just like many other clubs, they have had a lot of signings that have failed to perform. Sometimes it’s because the player is not ‘Chelsea quality’ and sometimes they buy quality players by paying huge fees, but the player fails to deliver.In recent years, Chelsea have spent abundantly on young and promising players, and have sent several of them out on loan. Many of these players have never or hardly played for the Blues and have then been sold for a good fee. The likes of Romelu Lukaku and Kevin De Bruyne are very good examples of the same.So, here is a look at 10 big signings made by Chelsea in the last decade that failed.  

#10 Lassana Diarra

Lassana Diarra signed for Chelsea in 2005, but he did not get much first team action as he was mainly used as an understudy to compatriot Claude Makelele.

He improved his game constantly by learning from Makelele who redefined the defensive midfielder position. Diarra put in impressive performances for the reserve team but Mourinho gave Diarra game time in the Cup matches and played him in the final two league games of the season.

His contract was set to expire in January 2008 and since there were no talks of extending it, Chelsea sold him to Arsenal on 31st August, 2007. Diarra made just 30 appearances for Chelsea in his two seasons at the club and most of them were as a substitute late-on in the game.

Diarra didn’t get a lot of game time at Arsenal either and he moved to Portsmouth and eventually got a move to Spanish giants Real Madrid. He had a decent spell with Real Madrid, but left them in 2012 for Anzhi.

He is currently without a club after having been released by Lokomotiv Moscow due to his attitude problems.