Farewell Fernando: Seven strikers who struggled to deliver at Chelsea

Forward flops and stupid swaps. With Fernando Torres now off the Chelsea payroll and his exit very likely to be one of the club’s main bits of business around the January transfer window, West London Sport takes a look at strikers who have struggled to shine at Stamford Bridge since the 1990s.

Robert Fleck – signed for £2.1m, August 1992
The signing that was supposed to take Chelsea from mid-table mediocrity to top-six challengers in a deal that was widely seen as a masterstroke. His goalscoring record at Norwich was average, but he scored a double in a 3-0 Canaries win at Stamford Bridge, always did well against the Blues and was a popular choice. The Scotland international was a strong, bustling striker, full of energy, with good technique, a fine football brain and always gave his all. But he scored just four goals in 48 games and sadly it never happened at Chelsea. John Spencer, who made Fleck look like a man mountain, was bought for about a sixth of the price that summer and proved about 10 times as effective. He still has his song though.

Mateja Kezman – signed for £5m, July 2004
Scored against Liverpool in the League Cup final of 2005 to help Jose Mourinho win his first trophy, but can hardly lay claim to be a big success. Signed from PSV Eindhoven with a great goalscoring record and full of bravado. But he was never a first choice and never truly fitted in to the system. “Come on Kezman” became something of a theme tune that season as the crowd had to wait until December for his first league goal – a penalty against Newcastle. He started just 14 games but his substitute appearances meant his final count was almost triple that tally. Nonetheless, his signing was in many ways a clever move by Mourinho. He did a decent back-up job that season, scoring seven goals and keeping the main men on their toes. And he was sold for a similar fee the next summer.

Chris Sutton – signed for £10m, July 1999
Signed for £10m from Blackburn, the centre-half turned prolific centre-forward started badly at Chelsea and things got worse. He missed two simple one-on-one chances on his debut in a 4-0 hammering of Sunderland and that set the tone. A fine player – as proved while at Norwich and Blackburn, and then after leaving Chelsea with Celtic. But it never happened with the Blues. He scored just three goals in 39 appearances – with just one of those coming in the league – and with his confidence shot, was pretty much replaced by veteran striker George Weah in the second half of the season.

Tony Cascarino – signed in exchange for Tom Boyd, February 1992
This never really had a hope of working out. The former Millwall frontman joined from Celtic in a move that saw Chelsea lose another decent left-back in Tom Boyd. Cascarino actually did reasonably well while at Stamford Bridge; he even scored on his debut and went on to get eight goals in 45 appearances and play in the 1994 FA Cup final. But the combined factors of a distinctly unimpressive reputation, and looking like being the man to replace Kerry Dixon – and therefore deny the Chelsea legend his chance to become the all-time record goalscorer – meant the deal was pretty much doomed.

Andrei Shevchenko – signed for £30m, May 2006
A world-class player with an incredible record at AC Milan, but past his very best by the time he joined and it never happened at Chelsea. Noticing a pattern here? Scored some cracking goals – notably away at Tottenham in the FA Cup – but never seemed like a Mourinho player and was supposedly the choice of Russian owner Roman Abramovich. He never had the full backing of his manager and was rarely given a decent run in a side that played to his strengths. Scored nine league goals in 30 starts and a total of 22 goals in 77 games but at £30m can hardly be deemed a success.

Steve Livingstone – signed for £350,00 as part of swap deal with Graeme Le Saux, March 1993
Like the Cascarino-Boyd deal, was a move that looked a bad bit of business to pretty much everyone except temporary boss David Webb and the Blues board. Chelsea got an average centre-forward in exchange for a few quid and future England left-back Graeme Le Saux. Livingstone made one goalless substitute appearance and Chelsea eventually rectified Webb’s error by re-signing Le Saux for £5m. Webb saved the club from an alarming downward spiral after Ian Porterfield’s sacking, but this transfer was a painful and very expensive lesson learned.

Fernando Torres – signed for £50m, January 2011
See Shevchenko, at least partly. The Spaniard won things, had some magic moments – notably Barca away and Benfica in the Europa League final – and showed glimpses of his talent after joining from Liverpool. But he never looked comfortable, never looked entirely happy and certainly didn’t have unwavering support from his manager. Even Rafael Benitez – his boss during his most productive time while at Liverpool – seemed to have lost some faith in Torres. And Carlo Ancelotti, Andre-Villas Boas and Jose Mourinho seemed not to have a great deal of belief to start with. Amassed 172 appearances but 55 of those were off the bench and only scored 20 league goals, and 45 in all competitions. But what a goal against Barca. That felt like £50m worth at the time.

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