Chelsea FC: Heaven And Hell
By Lee Fraser
Midfield
The midfield Heaven and Hell team was even harder to choose with 72 players during this time on Chelsea FC’s books.
On the Heaven side of things the candidates reads like a who’s who of modern football and includes the likes of Michael Ballack, Dennis Wise, Gustavo Poyet, Joe Cole, Michael Essien and more recently Willian.
However, I could only choose four so I went with:
LM Eden Hazard: Despite a poor start by his standards this season Eden is a master of ball control and mazy dribbles so is an automatic choice.
RM Arjen Robben: Arjen, when not injured, used to terrorise defenders with his direct runs. Unfortunately his injuries meant he didn’t play as many games as he maybe should have during the successful Premier League winning years.
CM Claude Makelele: Anyone who can get Tottenham Hotspur’s Les Ferdinand to not like them is worth a place in my Heaven team! Claude signed from Real Madrid, a club which then went three successive seasons without a trophy. That is the Maka effect, he is that good!
CM Frank Lampard: What can I say about Frank that hasn’t already been said hundreds of times before. Record midfield goalscorer for Chelsea FC doesn’t tell the whole story about Super Frank’s contributions to the team. His box-to-box energy was the most noticeable thing about him when signing from West Ham but with hours of training under his belt he soon developed into the complete midfielder package.
As far as the Hell team is concerned it was slightly easier and despite some valiant attempts for inclusion by the likes of Juan Cuadrado, Scott Parker, Mo Salah, Steve Sidwell and Alexey Smertin these are the four I ended up with:
LM Ricardo Quaresma: Ricardo continued his poor form from Inter Milan when signing on loan as injury cover for Joe Cole. Based on his four performances in the Premier League Chelsea FC should just have started each match with 10 players!
RM Brian Laudrup: Brother of Michael, Denmark’s other famous footballer. Brian signed on a free transfer from Glasgow Rangers but couldn’t come to terms with Chelsea FC’s infamous rotation policy that prevailed at the time. After a year of sub-standard performances (which he blamed on the rotation) he moved to Copenhagen, where incidentally he only lasted a year as well.
CM Yossi Benayoun: The best thing that could be said about Yossi was that Rafa Benitez liked him! In Benitez’s eyes Yossi was the definition of super sub; no matter the match situation the answer was to bring on Yossi!
CM Juan Sebastian Veron: Juan was the epitome of a player that couldn’t adapt to the faster more physical style of play in the Premier League. Within two years of signing for Manchester United he signed for Chelsea FC for half the price originally paid. He lasted a year with the blues before being loaned to Inter Milan for the rest of his contract!
Next: Attacking Heaven and Hell