Chelsea transfers in pictures

1 of 13 Wayne Bridge (£7m), Glen Johnson (£6m), Damien Duff (£17m), Marco Ambrosio (free) and Geremi (£7m) all join within a week of each other in July 2003

2 of 13 Claudio Ranieri is the man entrusted with Roman Abramovich's millions and West Ham's Joe Cole (£6.6m) and Manchester United's Juan Sebastian Veron (£15m) soon follow

3 of 13 Adrian Mutu (£15.8m) and Hernan Crespo (£16.8m) also hop aboard the Chelsea bandwagon in August as Ranieri looks to bolster his strike force with two European heavyweights

4 of 13 Russian captain and midfield general Alexei Smertin joins for a piffling £3.5m just after the start of last season - and is swiftly loaned out to Portsmouth

5 of 13 Abramovich ends last summer's spending spree with the signing of Real Madrid dynamo Claude Makelele for £16m - a player expected to be the final piece in the Chelsea jigsaw

6 of 13 But another midfielder, Scott Parker (£10m), is poached from Charlton in the January transfer window as Abramovich's Russian revolution continues apace

7 of 13 Rennes and Czech Republic goalkeeper Petr Cech (£7m) was signed back in February but is effectively this summer's first arrival and will challenge Italian stopper Carlo Cudicini

8 of 13 Having himself been lured from Manchester United at the end of 2003, Peter Kenyon pulls off perhaps Chelsea's biggest coup by landing Porto coach Jose Mourinho in June

9 of 13 Mourinho immediately gets stuck in to Roman's fortune and persuades his right-back at Porto, Paulo Ferreira, to join him at Chelsea for £13.2m

10 of 13 Serbian striker Mateja Kezman (£5m) follows Dutch winger Arjen Robben out of PSV Eindhoven and into Stamford Bridge as Mourinho goes into overdrive

11 of 13 And Marseille's prolific striker Didier Drogba is finally landed for around £24m after weeks of fishing and will be Chelsea's new spearhead for the coming season

12 of 13 Benfica midfielder Tiago (fee thought to be £10m) takes Chelsea's spending over the last year to approximately £190m

13 of 13 Central defender Ricardo Carvalho's capture for £19.85m seems to have completed Mourinho's Chelsea jigsaw