The 5 worst signings in Chelsea's history

#3 Tiemoue Bakayoko

Tiemoue Bakayoko's time at Chelsea was a total disaster

The expensive signing of Tiemoue Bakayoko in the summer of 2017 taught Chelsea a valuable lesson; it’s probably not a good idea to throw a huge fee – somewhere in the realm of £40m – at a player who realistically had just one good season under his belt, before which he’d come under criticism for his attitude and demeanour in training.

Bakayoko had genuinely been outstanding for Monaco during their famous 2016/17 season; a tough-tackling midfielder, he helped them to win Ligue 1 as well as make a surprising run to the semi-finals of the Champions League, but to say Chelsea never saw the best of him would be a total understatement.

The Frenchman arrived and immediately went into the Blues’ first-team under Antonio Conte, but struggled from the off, seemingly struggling with the pace and intensity of the Premier League. Bakayoko seemed to lose the ball more often than he was able to complete passes, and by the midway point of the season, it felt like the fans had turned on him.

The nadir for Bakayoko came in a February 2018 match with Watford; the Frenchman was sent off for two bookable offences inside just 30 minutes in a simply ludicrous showing, and the Blues went on to lose 4-1. Upon returning, his performances still didn’t improve, and it came as no surprise when he was sent on loan to AC Milan at the beginning of the 2018/19 season – where his struggles continued until he moved back to Monaco in the summer of 2019.