Eight of the strangest Chelsea transfers ever

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Alexey Smertin – According to most reports at the time, Smertin was signed because Abramovich wanted to have one of the star Russian players in the squad. Along the same lines, Chelsea were consistently linked with Andrei Arshavin and Roman Pavyluchenko, but Smertin; for all his hard-work and grit in midfield, was clearly not up to the task of playing for a side who were aiming to be champions of Europe.

Smertin provided some depth in his time at Chelsea so he wasn’t as bad a signing as some, but the Russian surely wouldn’t have been signed if it wasn’t for his nationality.

Steve Sidwell – After impressing for Reading, signing Sidwell on a free must have seemed like a good bargain option for the Blues who were trying to cut costs at the time. As the rest of Sidwell’s career has shown, he was; at best, a mid-table player who would work hard and pop up with the very occasional goal. Chelsea; by some magnificent misconception, seemed to think that this was enough for the red-headed central midfielder to be an option to cover for Frank Lampard.

Anything that is free can’t be that bad, but signing Sidwell was a monumental failure on the part of Chelsea’s scouting team.