Despite having the haircut of a Resident Evil villain, Meireles never made much of an impression at Chelsea. One of many caught in the collateral damage of Fernando Torres' abject failure, he was signed as another high profile player from Liverpool who would supposedly help the Spaniard feel at home at Stamford Bridge and recover his best form. Take a guess how well that turned out. The £12 million transfer fee was the second time Liverpool had taken Chelsea for a financial ride in six months, with the Portuguese supposedly intended to direct the play from deep but mostly ended up standing around looking utterly lost and perhaps wondering where the rest of his hair went. Perhaps he knew all along that he hadn't been the club's first choice, having pushed Tottenham hard but ultimately unsuccessfully to secure a deal for Luka Modric, or perhaps having to fill the huge boots of the severely injured club hero Michael Essien was just too much pressure for a player who was never particularly dynamic to begin with. Either way, while he had his moments, particularly an excellent performance in the second leg of the Champions League semi-final vs Barcelona, he was quietly shuffled off to Fenerbahce for £8 million at the end of the season. The kindest thing that can be said about Raul Meireles' Chelsea career is that he was utterly forgettable, never descending to the depths of a Jiri Jarosik, having the lousy attitude of Lassana Diarra, but also having plenty of chances to impress and rarely managing to assert himself in any meaningful way. And let's be honest, that haircut is probably one of the worst ever seen at Stamford Bridge... and we had Jason 'Pineapple' Lee.
28-year old English writer with a borderline obsessive passion for films, videogames, Chelsea FC, incomprehensible words and indefensible puns. Follow me on Twitter if you like infrequent outbursts of absolute drivel.
