Chelsea's Biggest Transfer Steals of the Past 10 Years

When Chelsea fans think about the transfer market this past decade or so, they're often hit with a sense of regret.

With the backing of Roman Abramovich, the club have been able to spend millions as they attempt to compete with Europe's elite, but there have been some high-profile duds along the way.

Costing £50 million in January 2011, Fernando Torres is the most painful example. The Spaniard's price tag came with a promise of goals and glory, but he failed to live up to the hype and eventually left with a whimper on a free transfer.

There are others, too, including the £18 million Yuri Zhirkov and £26.1 million Juan Cuadrado. All have been disappointments in Chelsea colours.

For every disappointment, though, there are those who buck the trend. Despite those expensive failures, Chelsea have found real value in the transfer market, signing some big names for a lot less than you may expect.

We're talking Champions League winners, Premier League winners and those seen as being among the elite in their position.

So, rewinding the clock by 10 years, Bleacher Report looks at some of the biggest and best transfer steals Chelsea have made since the start of the 2006/07 campaign.

Victor Moses

Catherine Ivill - AMA/Getty Images

It was in 2011 and 2012 that Chelsea's transfer overlords really earned their corn.

In one 12-month window, from the beginning of 2011/12 to the start of the following campaign, Chelsea signed Thibaut Courtois, Gary Cahill and Cesar Azpiliceuta all on the cheap—players who remain integral to the club now and have matured significantly.

We must add Victor Moses to that list.

The Nigerian was a £9 million signing from Wigan Athletic in 2012, arriving at Stamford Bridge shortly before the summer transfer window closed.

At times it's felt like that £9 million was a bad investment. Ahead of Conte's arrival, Moses had spent three of his four seasons as a Chelsea player on loan with other clubs. He failed to make an impact with all of them, too, struggling for game time at Liverpool, Stoke City and West Ham United.

This year has transformed everything. From a £9 million flop, Moses has become a bargain. He's settled into his right-wing back role like a natural, proving vital to how Conte has his team playing football. The Nigerian has looked strong enough when in the side, but taking him out of it has shown the problems Chelsea face without him.

The Blues have struggled massively in Moses' absence—a statement not even he would have predicted last summer when it appeared his Chelsea career was over.

It's only taken five years, but now Chelsea's investment in the wide man is beginning to pay a dividend—and what a payout it has been.

Cesar Azpilicueta

Catherine Ivill - AMA/Getty Images

When Cesar Azpilicueta joined from Marseille in 2012—shortly after the club had been crowned European champions—his £7 million price tag meant he slipped in under the radar. The Spaniard's signing that summer appeared a mere footnote, especially when Chelsea had won a Europe-wide battle to secure the services of Eden Hazard.

But look at Azpilicueta now. He's become a massive part of the club, gradually building his reputation over the past five seasons to be seen as integral to Chelsea's success.

Not only has he ended the top-flight career of Ashley Cole, he has also been the club's best left-back at a time when Chelsea have spent over £70 million on players in that position. Oh, and Azpilicueta is a right-back by trade.

Now he's adapted himself again to serve Antonio Conte with aplomb, sitting on the right side of a three-man defence to give Chelsea one of the meanest back lines in Europe.

Players of his kind are what successful teams are built around. And normally they come at a premium, especially for a club such as Chelsea, who aren't shy of spending big money in the pursuit of glory.

Azpilicueta was an absolute steal.

Gary Cahill

Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images

Six months before Azpilicueta's signing, Chelsea pulled off another fine bit of business when Gary Cahill joined the club from Bolton Wanderers.

Cahill's fee was the same as Azpilicueta's—just £7 million—and the centre-back has gone on to deliver time and again on that investment.

Within a few months of signing Cahill, Chelsea were getting their reward. He starred in their FA Cup and Champions League successes, helping the Blues to an unlikely cup double.

Injury meant he missed the 2-1 victory over Liverpool in the FA Cup final, but he was fit enough to last 120 minutes against Bayern Munich a fortnight later to help Chelsea lift the Champions League trophy.

It was an incredible contribution from a player who, when he joined the club in January 2012, had been in a relegation battle with Bolton.

Not only that, but Cahill has gone on to become a fine servant for the club. He has followed up those successes with the Europa League in 2013 and the League Cup and Premier League in 2015.

Now, in the current campaign, he has been the captain leading Conte's side since early October when they stole a march in the title race. If things go to plan, with Chelsea four points clear with just four games remaining, he should be adding another league winners' medal to his collection.

Cahill can also count himself as a lethal goal threat at the other end of the pitch. Not including penalties, he ranks as the second best goalscoring defender in Premier League history with 27—only John Terry on 40 is ahead of him.

Not bad for a player who cost less than the likes of Laurent Koscielny, Per Mertesacker and Nicolas Otamendi, to name but a few.

Ashley Cole

Another player of world-class talents and not hitting double figures in the million stakes is Ashley Cole. Believe it or not, Chelsea obtained his services for a mere £5 million from Arsenal at the beginning of 2006/07.

William Gallas was a makeweight in the deal, moving the other way, but even factoring in his own transfer value, the capture of Cole was daylight robbery.

Signing Cole for such a small fee then is akin to Chelsea taking Harry Kane from Tottenham Hotspur for peanuts now. Kane is one of the best players at Spurs—a homegrown product and the future of the club—and is vital to how the team play; Cole was exactly the same with Arsenal.

Chelsea had already won back-to-back titles when Cole joined them, so talk of a power shift in London was already being backed up with results on the pitch. Cole's signing was confirmation from the boardroom; it showed how Arsenal were losing the battle when it came to not only holding on to their star names, but also attracting them from other clubs.

Cole's signing represented so much, and in 2016/17, coming to the end of 10 years since his move, the Premier League landscape confirms what many believed back then, that Chelsea had usurped their rivals.

In the YouTube clip above from the 2012 Champions League final, Cole explains the thought process behind his decision to join Chelsea when he did.

"Now no one can say nothing to me," Cole declares to Sky Sports' Geoff Shreeves with gusto. "This is the reason I came here."

And it was the reason why Chelsea signed him, as players like Ashley Cole win you the biggest trophies. And he did.

Thibaut Courtois

Alastair Grant/Associated Press

As much as there's been a theme with players coming in under the £10 million mark here, there's also a trend of Chelsea signing defensive players on the cheap in the past.

We've seen Azpilicueta, Cahill and Cole costing a combined £20 million, and in the summer of 2011, Thibaut Courtois was signed by Chelsea for just £5 million. That's £3 million less than what they signed Asmir Begovic for as his back-up in 2015!

Granted, he was just 18 years old at the time, but the Blues' scouts had done their homework on the Belgian and spotted his potential.

Now he's delivering on it, saving Chelsea tens of millions in the transfer market, becoming Petr Cech's long-term successor for a fraction of the price it would cost to sign an established star.

Courtois' worth in the current market far outweighs what Chelsea paid for him. He's a bona fide star with a global appeal. Not only is Courtois courted by so many of Europe's leading clubs, he's a marketable talent that helps bring in millions for the Blues in sponsorship deals.

How did Genk fail to inflate the price of one of the world's finest talents? Chelsea must be asking the same thing as they laugh their way to the bank.