Deco was a player had supposedly been looking at since Jose Mourinho's first arrival at Chelsea, yet it took until 2008 for the club to finally secure his signature. The naturalised Portuguese playmaker was supposedly convinced to move from Barcelona by his former national team boss, Luiz Filipe Scolari, who had recently taken the reins at Stamford Bridge. Unfortunately, by that time Deco's form was already in decline and his age on the rise, reflected in the relatively cheap £10 million fee Chelsea paid to get him on their books. He started well, scoring some impressive goals - include a thirty yarder on his debut - as Scolari's Chelsea broke out of the blocks at full speed. Concerns about the Brazilian coach's slack training routines and lack of tactical variety soon arose as that early form began to crumble, with Deco's form mirroring his manager's fall from grace. After losing his place for much of the remaining season, he made public his unhappiness at the club and desire to leave, though Carlo Ancelotti convinced him to stay. His second season proved just as woeful as his first and he looked distinctly out of place as Ancelotti quickly instilled a sense of pride and confidence back in a Chelsea team which had faded badly from the unstoppable force of the Mourinho years. It was to little surprise and few tears when Deco finally said his farewells, joining Fluminense on a free in 2010. Having been on Chelsea's radar for so long, the player ultimately arrived in his twilight years and looked utterly lost once Scolari was deservedly shown the door after six months.
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.
