Chelsea Archives - footieholics

In this article we look at the first 9 players signed by Jose Mourinho for Chelsea in his first spell in charge

This was the second season under Roman Abramovich and they got their elite manager and backed him with the cash

Players

The players I think were a success I have put in bold

20	DF	Paulo Ferreira	£13.2 million	23 June 2004
1	GK	Petr Čech	£7.1 million^[	1 July 2004
16	MF	Arjen Robben	£12 million	1 July 2004
9	FW	Mateja Kežman	£5.3 million	13 July 2004
15	FW	Didier Drogba	£24 million	20 July 2004
30	MF	Tiago	£10 million	21 July 2004
6	DF	Ricardo Carvalho	£19.85 million	28 July 2004
33	DF	Nuno Morais	Undisclosed	29 August 2004
27	MF	Jiří Jarošík	£3 million	6 January 2005

Indivdual

Paulo Ferreira

Joined from Porto after playing under Jose Mourinho and was a major part of their success in wining the title at the first attempt

He helped Chelsea win Premier League trophies and the 2004 and 2012 editions of the Champions League.

Played 141 league games and 217 games in total

Petr Čech

An amazing signing, without doubt one of the top 3 keepers in Premier League history.

Cech registered 494 senior appearances, making him the club’s highest overseas appearance maker, and sixth all-time.

He also helped the club win four Premier League titles, four FA Cups, three League Cups, one UEFA Champions League title, and one UEFA Europa League title.

Čech also holds Chelsea’s all-time record for clean sheets, with 228.

Čech left Chelsea in 2015 to join Arsenal for a fee of £10 million.

Arjen Robben

The first of 2 PSV signings and the most succesful

He spent three seasons at Chelsea during which he played 67 league games and scoring 15 goals, in total he played 106 games and scored 19

He helped them win the Premier League twice and FA Cup once as well

He was sold to Real Madrid for a health profit of £24 million. He was good for Chelsea, its just people remember his Bayern career – could he have emulated that if he had stayed longer

Mateja Kežman

Chelsea have a habit of buying strikers and them not performing – Werner, Lukaku, Torres and Shevchenko to name a few

Mateja Kežman was the same, he was prolific at his previous club, PSV Eindhoven notching 105 goals in only 120 games

Kežman spent the season at Chelsea and scored seven goals in 40 appearances in all competitions, in the league he played 24 league games and scored four goals.

He was sold to Athletico Madrid for the same fee as he was bought – so nothing really lost there

Didier Drogba

When I mentioned strikers that Chelsea spoilt – here is an exception. This guy was absolutely incredible for Chelsea

In his debut season he helped the club win their first league title in 50 years, and a year later he won another Premier League title.

In March 2012, he became the first African player to score 100 Premier League goals

Just two months later, he scored in Chelsea’s 2012 FA Cup Final win over Liverpool to become the first player to score in four separate FA Cup finals.He also played in the 2012 UEFA Champions League Final, in which he scored an 88th-minute equaliser and the winning penalty in the deciding shoot-out against Bayern Munich

A legend

Tiago

Tiago was a regular for Chelsea, having only missed four games in the league.

He ended the season making 51 appearances in all competitions and scoring four goals as the club also added the Football League Cup.

However, the following campaign saw the arrival of Michael Essien, which limited his first-team chances.

Ricardo Carvalho

He spent a grand total of 6 seasons at Chelsea

he won two Premier League titles in a row and one League Cup, in his first two seasons. In 2008, he was voted the team’s Players’ Player of the Year. Two years later, he helped Chelsea win the league and FA Cup, the first Double in the club’s history.

In August 2010, after six years with Chelsea, he transferred to Real Madrid for a fee of £6.7 million

Nuno Morais

He was signed by Chelsea in 2004, but stayed only two years with the club

He only played a total of 9 times and then was sold to Apoel

Jiří Jarošík

He started the League Cup final, which Chelsea won 3–2 against Liverpool.

Chelsea won the 2004–05 Premier League title and Jarošík made enough league appearances to earn a championship medal.

In August 2005, Jarošík was loaned to fellow Premier League side Birmingham City for the 2005–06 season and then sold to Celtic

It has been announced today that Chelsea have signed Spain defender Marc Cucurella from Brighton in a deal worth more than £60m. It is believed to £55m and £7m in add-ons.

He can play at Left-back or Centre-back although at 5 foot 8 I’m not sure about the latter position

Originally chased by Man City it became obvious that once Chelsea wanted the player and the player asked for the transfer that it would be done.

60 million is a staggering fee for a left back and after only 1 season playing for Brighton it seems an absolutely fantastic piece of business by them allowing them to get a replacement and potentially strengthen other positions – a goal scorer for example seems a prime position.

The 24-year-old left-back, who played 38 games for Brighton last season and netted only once, has signed a six-year contract with Chelsea.

Signing for Barcelona, Cucurella spent most of his time there in the reserve team, making only one substitute appearance in the Copa del Rey for the first team. He subsequently went on to play over 100 La Liga games for Eibar and Getafe, before joining Brighton in 2021. On 31 August 2021, Cucurella joined Brighton on a five-year contract , so don’t get excited about the 6 year one Chelsea fans – ed.

At the club’s end of season awards Cucurella won Players’ Player of the Season as well as being voted Player of the Season – wonder if the club can recall those awards ???

He has played for the Spainish national team all the way from U16 to U23 level and has 1 cap for the senior team.

This seems to be a sign of the transfer window that Chelsea have had – several players that were on their radar have not signed with Barcelona being a particular thorn in their side – it has to be said they have massively over spent on this player, he is a good player but is this a sign of the new owners inexperience, Fair enough to splash the cash but to throw it about doesn’t seem to clever.

Always an issue when selling clubs know you have plenty of money and you appear desperate for players.

Chelsea

Chelsea signings quiz

The first 9 players signed by Jose Mourinho for Chelsea