Chelsea's Most Overhyped Players of Last 10 Years
Chelsea have had some real duds this past decade.
For the big hits like Eden Hazard and Diego Costa, there have also been players who waltzed into Stamford Bridge with big reputations, only to fail to deliver on what was expected of them.
There are some who were underwhelming—overhyped to the point of disappointment. They arrived with massive reputations and the promise of glory, but the only thing they delivered was an odour that stunk out Stamford Bridge.
If you can bear it, join us as we look at some of the best, or worst, as is the case.
Josh McEachran
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The biggest hope and, equally, the biggest disappointment of Chelsea's golden generation of academy players.
Josh McEachran was the first of his kind since John Terry: a Chelsea youngster with a bona fide shot at making it into the Blues' first team and becoming an established star.
Carlo Ancelotti was the manager who gave McEachran his chance, and the early signs looked promising. But as quick as he came to the wider football public's attention, no sooner had McEachran disappeared.
The midfielder endured a total of five loans in three seasons, and it severely damaged his reputation. He had been hyped as the next big thing, not just at Chelsea but also for England.
After struggling for Vitesse Arnhem, Swansea City and Middlesbrough, though, McEachran quickly slipped down the pecking order.
He's now plying his trade with Championship side Brentford, having departed Stamford Bridge in 2015.
Michael Mancienne
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Moving on from McEachran, Michael Mancienne was another Chelsea youth star who received plenty of hype in younger years.
Five years older than McEachran—Mancienne is now an elder statesmen in football dressing rooms, aged 29—his hype was built after some successful loan spells away from Chelsea.
Mancienne was ahead of the curve in that respect. Before Chelsea were creating a loan army, the defender was turning out for the likes of Queens Park Rangers and Wolverhampton Wanderers.
It was while at the latter that he earned a call up to Fabio Capello's England squad for a friendly against Germany in 2008. Mancienne didn't make his debut, but the call-up built a reputation around the defender that his abilities didn't quite deserve.
He was talented, yet he wasn't in the same bracket as the other players Chelsea had at their disposal at the time, notably Terry and Ricardo Carvalho.
After a few failed attempts to establish himself at Chelsea, Mancienne left the club for Hamburg in 2011. He joined Nottingham Forest three years later, where he still remains.
Kevin De Bruyne
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We're not talking Wolfsburg or Manchester City Kevin De Bruyne here. We're talking about the Belgian midfielder who struggled to make an impression at Chelsea.
There's a marked difference.
A man possessed on his loan travels and in Belgium colours, De Bruyne struggled massively at Chelsea. There was so much hype around his return to the club under Jose Mourinho in 2013 that it was expected he would form a dream attacking combination alongside Hazard.
It was quite the opposite. It seemed as though De Bruyne suffered under the weight of expectation, struggling to challenge others such as Juan Mata, Oscar and Andre Schurrle for a starting place in Mourinho's side.
He was a big disappointment in a Chelsea shirt, so when he was sold to Wolfsburg six months later, it didn't seem that big a loss.
Since then, De Bruyne has re-established his reputation, for which he deserves much credit.
Demba Ba
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When Demba Ba joined Chelsea from Newcastle United in 2013, he was supposed to be the answer to the club's struggles to replace Didier Drogba.
The Ivorian had left the club six months earlier after he had won the Blues the Champions League in dramatic fashion. Fernando Torres hadn't been prolific enough in stepping up, so Ba was seen as a potential option as the Blues attempted to unearth a gem.
The Senegalese frontman had notched 17 goals for the Magpies in the previous campaign and ahead of his move south had netted another 13 times in 2012/13. Included in that number was a brace against Arsenal, which proved to be his last game for Newcastle.
He never delivered on that expectation at Chelsea, though. Ba wasn't a big-enough threat, and for all the hype surrounding his debut, when Ba scored twice against Southampton, it all proved too much.
Ba was never going to be an elite striker, yet his signing made it seem Chelsea thought he would be.
Deco
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Has there been a better debut in Chelsea history than Deco's against Portsmouth in 2008/09?
The Portugal international had Blues fans purring with a display that saw him tear through the Pompey back line and inspire his side to a 4-0 victory.
So good was Deco's performance that supporters were ruing the fact the ex-Porto and Barcelona man hadn't joined the club sooner. They were left thinking about just how good Chelsea could have been in the years it had taken them to get him to west London.
It was all an illusion, though. We never saw Deco as good in a Chelsea shirt again. He crashed and burned in England, lasting just two seasons before he was sent packing back to his native Brazil.
Deco's performance that day summed up Luiz Felipe Scolari's reign. It was the former Brazil coach's first game in charge. His team's display was mouthwatering and hit heights that had the rest of the Premier League running scared.
In time, the wheels fells off for Scolari as they did for Deco. By February, he was out of a job. A World Cup winner and a man with a mean reputation, he couldn't cut it at Stamford Bridge.
Like Deco, Scolari couldn't match the hype of his arrival.
John Obi Mikel
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It's been a decade since John Obi Mikel first arrived in English football and Mourinho declared he had unearthed gold.
What the Special One didn't care to mention at the time was that it was fool's gold.
The Nigerian had Chelsea and Manchester United fighting over him like crazy. United thought they had won the battle, only for Chelsea to sneak in under the radar and steal Mikel from their clutches.
Lyn Oslo got a handsome transfer fee for the player—around £4 million—as did Manchester United, who earned themselves a pretty £12 million compensation package from Chelsea despite Mikel never playing for them.
The dispute all revolved around the midfielder's contract. He was believed to have signed with United before backing out and opting for Chelsea. It caused a major controversy and when Mikel started to turn out for the Blues, it left many wondering what it was all for.
Mikel would become an overhyped squad player for the Blues. He never stepped out of Claude Makelele and Michael Essien's shadows, with the damage to Chelsea's reputation never being paid back in performances.
Fernando Torres
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He was supposed to be one of Europe's biggest and most dangerous marksmen, which is why Chelsea paid £50 million for Fernando Torres in January 2011.
It was the deal of the century at the time—the biggest we have ever seen in a January transfer window.
By getting Torres from Liverpool, it was supposed to inject new life into Chelsea's title challenge under Ancelotti. The Blues were going to be a force to be reckoned with for years to come, with Torres their leading man.
The headlines were huge. The footballing world was supposed to read them and quiver in fear.
Then Torres made his debut against former club Liverpool, whom he had left just days earlier, and we saw the harsh reality. Chelsea had signed a broken man; a striker who couldn't live with the expectation of his then-British-record fee; a striker who was struggling after years of carrying the weight of Liverpool on his shoulders.
He never would recover and Chelsea would never get a return on the biggest investment they have made in 112 years and counting.
Juan Cuadrado
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Yes, that image is of Juan Cuadrado holding the Premier League trophy. Only it's a facade; Cuadrado is a Premier League champion by name only.
This isn't a rankings list, but if it were, Cuadrado would be top when it comes to overhyped stars at Chelsea. Yes, even more so than the £50 million Fernando Torres.
When Chelsea signed Cuadrado for over £26 million in February 2015, they weakened their side. When clubs spend that amount of money, it's supposed to offer a guarantee of strength.
Mourinho allowed Andre Schurrle to leave to make room for Cuadrado, and it came back to haunt him. The Colombian did nothing for Chelsea but ride on the coattails of his more talented team-mates, which meant he picked up that Premier League medal.
His substitute appearances were a travesty, with Cuadrado barely able to stay on his feet, let alone kick a football.
Yet all the while, there was this strange love affair between him and a section of supporters who had been sold on Cuadrado's apparent good displays for his country at the 2014 World Cup. Because Cuadrado had shown some flashes of magic in Brazil, the belief was that he would do it regularly for Chelsea. It hit the heights of delusion.
Cuadrado was nothing short of a catastrophic failure. He was a symptom of the problems that cost Mourinho his job in December 2015.
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