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Fernando, this is a painful letter for a Chelsea fan to write. We had so many hopes and dreams that have ultimately been shattered.
Who is to blame I’m not entirely sure. You didn’t force Chelsea to spend 50M and 200K a week on you, nor did you ask for the drop in performance, confidence and goals which have plagued you since your heyday on Merseyside. Where it all went wrong I don’t really know. Maybe the malaise had already set in before you arrived at Chelsea, maybe those first two seasons at Liverpool were the anomaly and we have simply had the real you.
Chelsea also have something of a track record for turning strikers into shells of their former beings. Others just weren’t very good in the first place.
In 1992 we spent a whopping 2.1M on a certain Robert Fleck, who went on to score a grand total of 3 goals in 40 league appearances over 3 years. Fleck was replaced as Chelsea’s record signing by Paul Furlong, who chipped in with 13 goals in 65 league appearances over 2 seasons and is widely considered to be the player responsible for the coining of the phrase regarding banjo players not being able to strike a cow’s posterior.
The situation at Chelsea evolved during the 90s and Pierluigi Casaraghi arrived in 1998 for a princely 5.4M. He scored one competitive goal for the club before succumbing to a sad and career-ending injury.
With their appetite whetted for luxury, Chelsea turned to Chris Sutton for the tidy sum of 10M. London appeared to discombobulate the former Norwich and Blackburn man as he returned a grand total of 1 league goal in 28 appearances.
Adrian Mutu’s near-16M move to Chelsea was much trumpeted. Unfortunately it soon became apparent Mutu preferred a different type of ‘bugling’ and 6 league goals in 27 appearances before his sacking represented another considerable gaffe.
Hernan Crespo’s time at Chelsea was actually a relative success and had it not been for his inability to settle in London he may have been a fine Chelsea player. Regardless, 16.8M for a return of 20 league goals in 49 appearances before leaving on a free transfer has to be considered a poor return.
This leads us to Andriy Shevchenko.
Widely considered to be Roman Abramovich’s best pet signing, the Ukrainain arrived in London in 2006 for over 30M. Shevchenko returned 9 league goals in 48 matches. Not what had been hoped for. He was eventually loaned back to AC Milan before finally returning to Dinamo Kiev, again with Chelsea recouping nothing on their considerable investment.
Fernando, there have been some great moments of course – your goal in the Nou Camp will always shine brightly and you of course scored in the Europa League final. I was even present at Stamford Bridge when you scored a hattrick for Chelsea against Queens Park Rangers.
Fernando, I don’t know what is to become of you. Maybe you’ll be a makeweight in a deal to take Diego Costa to Chelsea, and return home to Atletico Madrid this summer. Maybe you’ll even score a hatrick against Atletico in the Champions League this month. Unfortunately, Jose Mourinho would have to let you on the pitch for that to happen and he seems to prefer Demba Ba right now.
The Chelsea fans in the main still love you and somewhere, somehow, we all hope the defibrillators will eventually work. Alas, I feel it is now too late.
However, we feel sorry for you rather than feel angry with you. I’m sorry it had to end this way, financially you’ve done wonderfully from us but no one wants to see their career end in just such a forlorn way.
El Nino, all the best with whatever is to come. You’re definitely better than Robert Fleck, and maybe even Paul Furlong.
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