From: Parma To: Chelsea Fee: £15.8 million (Source: The Independent) When Mutu emigrated to the Premier League, he came with the prestige of the Most Wanted Striker in Europe. He was strutting his stuff in the, admittely inferior Italian league, but he was also vice-captain of the Romanian national team where he scored 34 goals in 72 goals for his country. So Mutu, now 33, was bought for £15.8million in 2003 by Chelsea, and it was presumed that the Romanian icon would continue where he left off in Serie A, and start banging in goals at Stamford Bridge on a regular basis. Mutu started the season well, living up to expectations, scoring 3 goals in 4 games, however his form inexplicably tailed off considerably by the end of the season and at one low point in 2003, he endured a woeful period of 8 games without a goal to his name. Mutu's lacklustre performances on the field were not aided by an extremely rocky relationship with Roman Abramovich, the Chelsea owner, and the pair frequently found themselves amidst tense personality clashes, disrupting the milieu of the dressing room. To put the kibosh on a wretched time at Chelsea, in September of the 2004-5 season, Mutu failed a drugs test for cocaine and he was subsequently banned from all forms of the game for seven months. This particular damning episode spelt the end of Mutu's Chelsea career and he was released in October that year. So all in all, he played one season at the club, playing 27 games, scoring only 8 goals.
Massive Arsenal fan Jacob Savill, is a new-ish contributor to WhatCulture and his first few articles have proved popular amongst the sports and film pages. As an A-Level English Student and an aspiring journalist he's using WhatCulture as preparation for what he hopes to be a successful journalistic career.
