Stamford Bridge Bench
Image by Nate Loper via flickr

Adrian Mutu ‘Ballon d’Or Winner’ And Chelsea’s Most Mercurial Talents

Given the demanding nature of professional sport, it’s perhaps good when a footballer has confidence to spare.

It means that they can insulate themselves from poor performances and criticism, believing in their talent to the point that they feel a return to form is just around the corner.

There’s confidence, there’s hubris and then there’s self-belief that paints the individual as residing on cloud cuckoo land – we’ll let Chelsea fans decide where Adrian Mutu fits on that particular spectrum.

According to the man himself, Mutu could and would have won the Ballon d’Or had he not become addicted to cocaine during his time at Stamford Bridge.

He was banned for seven months after failing a drugs test, which led to Chelsea releasing the Romanian from his contract after playing just 26 times – that in turn led to Mutu launching, and losing, a legal case against the club… and the whole thing became a terrible mess… and a waste of a special talent.

No one regrets that more than Mutu himself, who has claimed that he would have been recognised as the best player in the world had he stayed on the straight and narrow in London.

“I believe that for more than a season, I was amongst the best players in the world, so I could have won it [the Ballon d’Or] easily,” Mutu has said.

“But bad decisions prevented me from doing so.”

We’ll never know if he was right about that. But we do know that he joins a rogues gallery of mercurial misfits who, despite their incredible talent, were unable to make the grade at Chelsea.

Alan Hudson

It’s harsh, in a way, to include a player who made more than 100 appearances for Chelsea on a list of unfulfilled talents.

But there was an element of what might have been with Ray Hudson, who was born in Chelsea and ranks as one of the most still skilful players the club has ever had – he could have even been a Brazilian called Raymondo, such was his level of class.

However, Hudson was out of Stamford Bridge at the age of just 24 – a falling out with then Chelsea boss Dave Sexton, who didn’t like the fact that his star midfielder was a drinker and something of a party animal.

Hudson’s career took in stints at Stoke City – where he was the fall guy when the club needed to pay for stadium repairs, and subsequently sold to Arsenal. But again, personal issues with management saw him shipped out; this time to American side Seattle Sounders, where he played in the burgeoning NASL, before bizarrely ending up in the Major Indoor Soccer League.

With his professional playing career all but over at the age of 32, there’s definitely a sense of what might have been for Hudson and Chelsea.

Gael Kakuta

To offer an insight into how badly Chelsea wanted to sign Gael Kakuta when he was a teenager, they actually broke transfer rules in order to snap him up – a subsequent sanction saw them banned from buying players for two transfer windows.

Kakuta himself was banned from football for four months and fined in the region of £500,000 – a bit excessive, really, for a 16-year-old boy.

After finally moving to Chelsea in 2009, the tricky winger impressed immediately, winning Academy Player of the Year, before making his first team debut against Wolves.

But a devastating double ankle fracture halted his progress, and after falling down the pecking order at Chelsea he embarked on SIX consecutive loan spells at clubs as varied as Bolton Wanderers, Lazio and Dijon in France.

Unable to settle due to those nomadic circumstances, Kakuta pretty much fell off the radar at the top level, plying his trade in China, Iran, Turkey and the French second division.

In a parallel universe, Kakuta didn’t break his ankle, earned himself a regular place in Chelsea’s first team and his career took an altogether different path to the one realised here in the real world.

Josh McEachran

Coming through the ranks at Cobham at the same time as Kakuta was Josh McEachran, another young star with the footballing world at his feet.

A product of Chelsea’s youth academy, the midfielder impressed suitably to get his maiden appearance with the first team at the age of 17, making ten appearances for the senior squad.

As is customary with talented young stars, a series of loan moves were organised to promote McEachran’s development into a player ready to star for Chelsea week in, week out. Temporary stints at Swansea, Middlesbrough, Watford and Wigan reaped varying levels of success, but the talented left-footer was never able to prove himself at Premier League level.

He’s campaigned in the Championship and League One since, which feels like talent unfulfilled given that he played for England at every youth level and was handed a five-year contract by Chelsea at the age of 18 – turning down a move to Real Madrid in the process.