Rebecca Naden/PA Archive/Press Association Images
Of course, everybody can see that Jose Mourinho’s dismissal in September 2007 was a mistake. Even the executioner Roman Abramovich has realised he should have stayed his hand – he just had to go through seven through managers to have such an epiphany. Obviously, anyone with sense could have just pointed to the trophies that the Portuguese manager had won in his first three years at the club as a reason for him to be kept on – on the other hand, however, if one were to look at his transfer dealings in the summer of 2007, maybe he did look like he was losing the plot.
Perhaps it was as a result of the £30 million Shevchenko flopping on his first season that tightened the pursestrings on Abramovich’s wallet, refusing to indulge Mourinho’s spending habit, but whatever the reason, Mourinho’s last transfer window at Stamford Bridge was a strange one.
Steve Sidwell is a modest footballer whose CV includes the likes of Reading, Aston Villa, Fulham and Stoke City, which highlight his level. Spending the 07/08 season at Chelsea, following a free transfer from Reading, was simply a waste of time for a 24 year old midfielder with aspirations of an England call-up, as there was never the remotest possibility that he could pose a threat to the starting line-up.
15 league appearances were churned out by Sidwell, before everybody realised that the former Reading midfielder was nowhere near Chelsea standard and was chucked out to Aston Villa in a £5 million deal.
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