10 Players Who Probably Regret Joining Chelsea
7. Scott Parker
It seems strange to include a player who won the PFA Young Player of the Award while on the books of Chelsea, but when one analyses the limited opportunities that he was actually afforded in the 03/04 season, they can intimate that it was possibly a season of hampered progress.
Parker has spent most of his career in London, beginning his career at Charlton Athletic, before taking in spells at West Ham, Tottenham and Fulham, while donning the captains armband on Tyneside for a period. Brimming with potential, it is no wonder that the swashbuckling fat cats of Abramovichs entourage arrived at Charltons headquarters with cheques in hand, following a series of tenacious and dynamic displays in the middle of the park for the Premier League side.
With the world seemingly at his feet, he had been predicted to be an English captain, and a mainstay of an inevitably glorious Ranieri era. The punters were half right, as Parker pulled the armband up the sleeve of his Three Lions jersey in 2012 for a friendly meeting with the Dutch, but as far as his Chelsea career goes, nothing could be further from the truth. Having left Charlton in acrimonious circumstances, incurring the wrath of former boss Alan Curbishley for his role in the transfer, he found it difficult to dislodge the strangehold that Claude Makalele and Frank Lampard had on the midfield.
Once Mourinho was appointed, Parker might as well have packed his bags and sang his farewell song, having only been entrusted with meaningless cup games. To signify just how little Parker mattered to the Chelsea cause, he wasnt even eligible for a Premier League medal once the curtain was pulled on a triumphant club season, with the former Charlton hero having made just four league appearances.
In order to get his career back on track, an escape route was devised, with Newcastle owner Freddie Shepherd stumping up £6.5 million to acquire the services of the former PFA Young Player of the Year in July 2005. His path to the England captaincy had been cleared.