10 Players Who Probably Regret Joining Chelsea
1. Adrian Mutu
Some players are the victims of their own devastation. Its nearly ten years since Adrian Mutu received a seven-month ban for failing a drugs test, and we are still left wondering what he could have achieved. One of the Chelski Galacticos of 2003, arriving in the same spending spree as Damien Duff and Wayne Bridge, Roman Abramovich invested £15.8 million in the prolific Romanian. Joining from Parma, the Romanian maverick started with a bang, notching four goals in his first three matches.
However, not uncommon to the pattern of drug-fuelled individuals, his high-intensity start at the club slowed dramatically, as the goals dried up. The following season, Mutu and the incoming Mourinho were at loggerheads over a potential injury, but that argument was nothing compared to the drugs scandal which would dominate the Romanian's career.
Failing the drugs test in September 2004 for cocaine, he was swiftly sacked from the club the following month. He had incurred the wrath of the FA, and was subject to a seven month ban and a £20,000 fine. Not only that, but Chelsea began to actively seek compensation from the player, having felt wronged and cheated by a player they had invested so much money in.
In a long-running case, spanning two years, Mutu was dragged through the courts by his former club, and in May 2008, was ordered by the FIFA Dispute Resolution Chamber to pay his former club £13 million in compensation for breach of contract. The Romanian striker would go on to appeal the decision, but in July 2009, and again in June 2010, it was dismissed out of hand.
This case has been plaguing Mutu for the last decade. It is no wonder that he has been unable to display any semblance of the form that earned him a multi-million pound move to the London giants in 2003, with the constant stress of the court cases stabbing at his thoughts. However, if one were to assume that Mutu had learned his lessons, grown up and become a more professional athlete, one would have to assume again, with the former Romanian talisman having been suspended from his national team in recent years.
While he has taken in relatively successful spells at Fiorentina and Juventus since his escapades in the English capital, he is currently 35 years old and struggling to make the matchday squad for Petrolul Ploiesti in his homeland.