Playing for Chelsea Football Club is a draw that many young footballers have found difficult to resist in recent years.
The alluring combination of fame, money and trophies has been hard to resist.
Succeed like Gary Cahill and you can go from fighting against relegation one minute to Champion of Europe and FA Cup winner the next.
However, the dream can sour fairly quickly at a club as big as Chelsea with starlets being sucked into a world of pressure, loans and ultimately rejection.
Scott Parker
Before coming to Chelsea Scott Parker was a big fish in a little pond at Charlton. Signed for 10 million pounds in 2003 he never really got a chance to prove himself at Stamford Bridge.
He made just 15 Premier League appearances for the Blues over three years as he struggled to get ahead of club legends Claude Makelele and Frank Lampard in the starting XI. He was sold to Newcastle in 2005 and recovered quickly to become one of the most respected midfielders outside of the Premier League elite.
Chelsea fans had a lot of time for Parker, but he never quite made it.
Steve Sidwell
Like Parker, Sidwell signed for Chelsea after impressing at a club outside of the top six. Sidwell joined from Reading in 2007 after leading the Royals to the Premier League with some impressive performances.
Sidwell like Parker before him could not stake a claim in a talent-filled midfield. After one season where he made a respectable 25 appearances, Sidwell was sold to Aston Villa where like Parker he re-established his reputation.
Marko Marin
Marko Marin, who was dubbed as the ‘German Messi’ of his time, had a lot of expectations on his shoulders. He was signed to Chelsea in 2012 after two impressive seasons playing with Werder Bremen. Joining Chelsea Football Club was a dream come true for the German superstar, it eventually turned from a pleasant dream to a train wreck of a nightmare as bad turned to worse as injuries throughout the season plagued him and eventually granted him only six appearances and scoring one goal for the Club.
Overcome with self-guilt and disappointment, the German midfielder left for Olympiakos in 2016 to save face from losing a place in his dream team.
