Chelsea fans might not want to remember him, but Winston Bogarde made a lasting impact at the club for all the wrong reasons.
Often branded one of the worst Premier League transfers of all time, Bogarde signed for Chelsea from Barcelona in 2000 under coach Gianluca Vialli.
However, he left soon after and was replaced by Claudio Ranieri when his problems began.
The Italian was not a fan of the defender and barely played him despite the club paying him a contract worth £40,000-a-week.
As he was in the latter days of his career, Bogarde had no interest in leaving and was happy to take the money at that stage of his career as he knew it was the best offer he would ever get – even jetting off back to his native Netherlands on the weekend safe in the knowledge he wouldn’t be playing.
Chelsea tried to persuade him to leave by forcing him to train with the youth teams, but nothing perturbed Bogarde, who stayed for four years and made 12 appearances.
talkSPORT’s very own Jason Cundy was at the club during this period and recalled what it was like seeing the Netherlands international be part of the side.
Speaking in role as host of Sports Bar, the former Chelsea defender explained: “When I was doing my badges, UEFA B, Stevie Clarke, who is now Scotland manager, was the youth team manager at Chelsea.
“He let me come in and put some sessions on. Part of that, Winston Bogarde would not leave, he was on £40,000-a-week.
“I don’t know how long he had on his contract, but he had years. He basically stuck two fingers up at the club and said ‘you gave me this contract’.
“He wasn’t going to get that money anywhere else. So what he used to do on a Friday is fly back to Holland and on the Monday fly back to Heathrow, come in and train.
“By the way, in training it should be said that he put everything in. I can have no complaints about the sessions I put on, honestly!”
Sitting alongside him, fellow talkSPORT host Jamie O’Hara joked: “Funny because that’s not what he said about your training sessions!”
Cundy, who came up through the academy at Chelsea before leaving in 1992, replied: “No wonder Bogarde couldn’t get back in the team!
“But honestly, he was a top lad. I can have no complaints. The club gave him the contract, he played 12 games in the four years he was there.”
Bogarde retired after his stint at Chelsea and had no regrets over how his career ended, pocketing some serious cash in the process.
Written in Marcel Rozer’s biography on his life, Bogarde said: “Why should I throw €15million [£13m] away when it is already mine?
“At the moment I signed it was in fact my money, my contract. Both sides agreed wholeheartedly.
“I could go elsewhere to play for less, but you have to understand my history to understand I would never do that. I used to be poor as a kid, did not have anything to spend or something to play with.
“This world is about money, so when you are offered those millions you take them. Few people will ever earn so many. I am one of the few fortunates who do.
“I may be one of the worst buys in the history of the Premiership, but I don’t care.”
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https://talksport.com/football/1709885/chelsea-winston-bogarde-transfer-jason-cundy/
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