Chelsea fans in the Football Transfer Tavern are simply counting down the days until they see their side crowned Premier League champions for the fourth time.
There is no question Jose Mourinho’s side have been the strongest team in the country this term, having been top of the pile since the opening month of the season – and not looking back once.
The debate continues as to whether this is the strongest Chelsea side Mourinho has managed, with many looking back at the team of 2004-05 and 2005-06, who won back-to-back titles with plenty to spare.
It has not always been this way for Chelsea however, as this XI of Stamford Bridge flops prove.
Chelsea fans, look back at this and be thankful for just how good you’ve got it at the moment!
Who makes the cut in this XI, managed by the one and only Avram Grant?
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Click on Jose Mourinho moaning to reveal the ‘Worst Chelsea XI of all time’
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Mark Bosnich
The Australian completed a transfer to Chelsea in the summer of 2001, having failed to establish himself as number one at Manchester United.
That should have been a sign for the Blues, as Bosnich managed to make just five league appearances at Stamford Bridge, before failing a drugs test and seeing his career collapse.
Khalid Boulahrouz
The Dutchman arrived at Stamford Bridge in 2006, and was noted for his versatility at the back.
In fact, he was so versatile, he was inexplicably given the number nine shirt during his time at Chelsea.
Boularhouz made little to no impact in 13 league appearances over two years, and looked out of his depth from pretty much the moment he arrived.
He can now be found at Feyenoord.
Winston Bogarde
The man who simply would not leave.
Dutch defender Winston Bogarde spent four years at Stamford Bridge having been signed from Barcelona in 2000.
He made 9 league appearances in that time, but was happy to sit around not playing picking up £40,000 a week, typifying everything wrong with the modern footballer.
Tal Ben-Haim
Signed in the summer of 2007 on a free transfer, nobody to this day can still manage to explain quite what Jose Mourinho was thinking.
The transfer perhaps signalled the end of Mourinho’s first spell at Chelsea, as the Israel international struggled in a defence that made a slow start to the 2007-08 season.
Mourinho was sacked in September, and fellow countryman Avram Grant took over at Stamford Bridge – and even he didn’t rate Ben Haim enough to play him!
Patrick van Aanholt
Patrick van Aanholt arrived at Stamford Bridge in 2009 with a reputation for having huge potential.
But four years, two league appearances and five loan spells later, the Dutchman appeared no closer to realising it.
He has recently made the permanent switch to Sunderland, where he is busy trying to break into the first team that is currently fighting relegation.
Shaun Wright-Phillips
Wright-Phillips arrived with a reputation as one of the most promising young players in England when he completed his £21 million move to Stamford Bridge in 2005.
But a lack of regular first team football and a failure to settle into Mourinho’s style of play meant the move was a disaster almost from the word go.
Wright-Phillips has seen his career suffer hugely since that move and he has never fully recovered having once been considered a future England star.
Steven Sidwell
Steve Sidwell joined Chelsea in the summer of 2007 on a free transfer having impressed at Reading the previous year.
Sidwell claimed he hadn’t joined to simply ‘make up the numbers’ – but sadly he was proved wrong.
Sidwell will challenge Franco Di Santo and Khalid Boulahrouz for the unwanted honour of being the worst number 9 in Chelsea’s history, having clocked up just 15 appearances for the Blues before being sold to Aston Villa just 12 months later.
He gets to sit at the base of this midfield diamond to soften the blow however…
Ricardo Quaresma
The man once inexplicably dubbed the ‘new Cristiano Ronaldo’ completed a deadline day loan switch to Stamford Bridge in January 2009.
Jose Mourinho had deemed the Portuguese winger to be not good enough whilst in charge of Inter Milan, and it was the same story in west London.
Quaresma made a total of four appearances in a Chelsea shirt before returning to Inter and then onto Besiktas. He can currently be seen flattering to decieve with Porto.
Adrian Mutu
The Romanian forward was one of the first arrivals of the Roman Abramovich era, signing for £15 million in the summer of 2003.
Mutu started well enough, with four goals in his opening three matches.
However, a loss of form, a lack of goals, a fallout with Jose Mourinho and a failed drugs test followed, and Mutu was released in October 2004, having been banned from football for seven months.
He gets the nod to play at the tip of this midfield diamond for Chelsea’s ultimate worst XI.
Mateja Kezman
The Serbian forward signed for Chelsea from PSV Eindhoven for £5.5 million in 2004 after netting an impressive 105 goals in just 122 appearances for the Eredivisie side.
However like so many Dutch to English imports he couldn’t replicate this stunning goal scoring form in the Premier League.
He spent just one season at Stamford Bridge playing 24 league games and scoring just seven goals for the Blues before leaving for Atletico Madrid in the summer.
The fifth and final Jose Mourinho signing to make this XI.
Carlton Cole
Once billed as Chelsea’s great hope for the future, Carlton Cole was a homegrown centre forward expected to take the Premier League by storm.
Chelsea did all they could to keep him for as long as they could once Roman Abramovich arrived and brought with him an influx of talent in the summer of 2003.
Cole stayed at Stamford Bridge until 2006, and left with a record of four Premier League goals in 25 appearances over five years.
