I have just been thinking about this with the whole Matic rumor and was wondering who else fell into this category.
EDIT: As u/Recursi says, These players are also Chelsea starting 11 caliber.
Posted Dec 12, 2013, 12:59 PM UTC · edited
Matic, Sturridge, Sinclair, possibly Cork and Borini although neither are superstars
Cork is easily in the same category as Sinclair.
Glen Johnson, Carlton Cole, Miroslav Stoch
I still don't rate Glen Johnson.
Has Stoch done much? He did well on his last loan at Twente but I hadn't heard much from him otherwise.
I did ask a Fenerbache fan over in r/soccer He said that he has flashes of quality but ultimately would be playing for a mid table club in PL at best.
Well he did win goal of the year last year, so there is that
I would be interested in clarifying your question by adding: "and arguably would be starting 11 caliber for Chelsea" (like Matic, but not Borini, for example).
Sturridge has had a good year up until the injury. Still a bit early, though. I don't know if he would have really fit our system anyway if we had kept trying.
I don't think he fit into our system or our club, but that doesn't stop him from being a top player.
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Scott Parker, Claudio Pizarro, and Lassana Diarra are to name a few more.
Lasanna never really stood out to me even after he left, sure he joined top clubs, but I always felt he never really performed at those clubs at all.
Yeah but he played better at Madrid than he did at Chelsea.
George Weah
I'd go with Sturridge, Borini, Johnson, Parker... Robben, Duff, Cudicini, etc others were already great players.
Cudicini's best years were between the sticks at The Bridge. Best goalkeeper in the league for near on three years before Petr.
Definitely, player of the season for us one year! Just saying he was great with us
Hard to define "better." For a lot of these players, minutes and opportunity were simply the issues.
I definitely think Matic is an improved talent, but it's really hard to say any players of quality left and improved given the reason they probably left is because they were not good enough. We don't sell top players.
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shevchenko
Shaun Wright-Phillips, Jose Bosingwa.
lol.
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who, Marseille?
Robben
While I agree he has got better I wouldn't put him in there with Matic, Sturridge, Borini etc.
He was fantastic for us, one of our best players in the squad when he wasn't constantly injured.
sturridge has been gone for far too little time - robben on the other hand won Bayern the CL this year.
Sure, but he was a match winning player while he was with us as well, I don't see your point regarding Robben. There's a reason he went straight from Chelsea to Real Madrid, he already had the quality to play in teams of that calibre.
He was one of our best players in our title winning seasons, he was way better than "okay/good."
Robben was just as good in his first two seasons with us as he is now. His constant injuries were the reason we sold him, not his lack of productivity.
And he fell out with Jose didn't he?
I think Jose was just tired of him being injured all the time. Other than that, I don't think there was any bad blood like in the case of Gallas. But then again, Gallas was only pissed cause he didn't get as much money as the rest. Oh well.