5 players who rejected a transfer to Chelsea

Chelsea are one of the biggest clubs in Europe and regularly compete for silverware on multiple fronts every season. This season was marked by inconsistency by Chelsea in the league and while they finished a disappointing 5th, they still ended the season with silverware in the form of the FA Cup.

They have a worldwide fanbase, vast resources through sponsorships, merchandise sales and television broadcasting rights which are used to lure in players and hold onto them despite advances of other clubs. As such, any player would leap at the opportunity to play professionally for the Blues.

Donning the Chelsea shirt represents that one is at the very top level in the footballing world and commands considerable respect. Despite this, due to a multitude of reasons, players sometimes reject a move to Stamford Bridge as well, raising eyebrows in the process. While players rejecting the advances of Chelsea are very few, the ones who do take this gutsy step usually stir quite a storm.

Here, we present a list of 5 prominent players who have rejected a move to Stamford Bridge in the past.

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#5 John Stones

Manchester City v Bristol City - Carabao Cup Semi-Final: First Leg

Stones currently plies his trade in the blue half of Manchester, however, before his world record move to Manchester City, he was aggressively pursued by Chelsea. He played for Everton at the time and was one of the brightest prospects and highest rated young defenders in the world at the time.

In 2015, Chelsea were in dire need of a defender. Their investments in Papi Djilobodji and Baba Rahman had not paid off, while Branislav Ivanovic and Filipe Luis were on their way out of the club. This was apart from the fact that John Terry was nearing the twilight years of his legendary Chelsea career.

Chelsea desperately needed depth and skill at the defensive end and saw it in Stones. Stones was also being touted as a purchase for the future, with many tipping him to grow into his role and have a long, storied Chelsea career much like that of Terry. Moreover, Jose Mourinho, one of the world's premier managers was said to be a big fan. Things looked on the up for Stones, all he had to do was sign for Chelsea.

He stayed put, however, much to the relief of Everton fans around the world. While the Everton establishment stood to earn a lot of money from the transfer, they held onto their prized asset dearly and blocked out any possibility of a transfer. A year later, though, Stones moved to City and after the move, remarked that he was happy to play under the tutelage of the "Best manager in the world" in Pep Guardiola.

He also said that he was thankful that he stayed an extra year at Everton, remarking that the regular playing time and experience helped him grow and mature into a better, more ready player by the time he moved to City.

Whether not moving to Chelsea was to Stones' advantage or not is debatable. He has endured an inconsistent time at Manchester City. He has looked shaky in defense and has, at a certain point in time, made mistakes that have cost City. While he is strong, resolute and has handled the situation well, many people wonder what course his development would've taken had he switched sides to the Blues an year earlier. Moreover, the arrival of players such as Aymeric Laporte has further cast his role at City into doubt.

One can only wonder what could've been had Stones only signed for Chelsea instead.

#4 Hulk

Hulk had transfer offers from Chelsea and Real Madrid but chose to sign for Zenit instead.

In 2012, Hulk was a hot commodity in the transfer market. He was coming off a spectacular season with Porto and clubs around the world were lining up to secure his services. The front-runners among them were Chelsea.

The fact that Hulk had found the net 57 times in 91 games over the past two seasons made him very appealing to Chelsea - who required strikers more than anything at that point in time. Didier Drogba had just led Chelsea to Champions League glory the season before and was set to depart for China. Fernando Torres, an expensive €50 million acquisition from Liverpool the season before had not lived up to expectations, scoring 12 times in 67 appearances for the club. Moreover, Chelsea had just signed Eden Hazard and needed a top class marksman to take full advantage of the promising Belgian's craftiness.

Hulk promised to be that marksman. As fits his name, he also had physically imposing characteristics and was expected to be able to hustle within the box, create spaces and fire the artillery, as he had been doing. His bulk was also supposed to give Chelsea an aerial advantage in set pieces, something that the side would lack after Drogba's departure.

Chelsea had lined up a €38 million offer for Hulk. The Blues were ready to pay more for Hulk than they paid for Hazard during the same window. By that point, other clubs in the mix had given up the chase and all that was left was for Hulk to put pen to paper.

Hulk surprised the world by deciding to not join Chelsea in the very last minute, though. Moreover, his eventual destination, Zenit St. Petersburg in Russia, was even more perplexing. While he did perform well in the Russian league, scoring regularly and at will, he faded from the radar of top European powerhouses, as he could not inspire Zenit to make deep runs in the Champions League.

In 2014, Hulk said that there was no point in joining Chelsea or Real Madrid - another reported suitor - because he was not guaranteed playing time there. Obviously, many wonder why he left Porto in the first place considering that he had a starting spot and his team made impacts in the Champions League as well.

Money is also said to be a major motivation in Hulk's decision to sign for Zenit. Moreover, the fact that he would've been a starter at the Bridge is also brought up. Currently, Hulk plies his trade in China and one can't help but wonder how different the story could've been had he signed for Chelsea instead.

#3 Romelu Lukaku

Chelsea v Manchester United - The Emirates FA Cup Final

Rather perplexingly, Chelsea have bought and sold certain players, only to end up buying them again, with names like Nemanja Matic and David Luiz coming to mind.

Similarly, a certain Romelu Lukaku played for Chelsea and was shipped out on loan to Everton. After performing well there, he was brought back into the Blues fold and played a bit-part substitute role, competing for places with the likes of Didier Drogba, Diego Costa, Demba Ba and Samuel Eto'o.

Opportunities were hard to come by for young Lukaku and thus, despite turning in spectacular performances for Everton and arising eyebrows across Europe, he was sold to Everton.

Fast forward to 2017, Lukaku has developed into one of the most effective and coveted strikers across Europe and has become, in 5 short years, Everton's all time leading goalscorer. He was ready to leave Everton to join other heavyweights to win silverware. Still young at 25, he was aggressively pursued by many clubs across Europe, including Chelsea.

Chelsea required a striker after Diego Costa, who despite spending fruitful seasons at the Bridge and winning silverware, left Chelsea after relationships broke down between him and Chelsea manager Antonio Conte. Lukaku was Chelsea's prime target and Chelsea boasted of experience in the field of recapturing players who once played for the Blues but had since become prized commodities in the transfer market after flourishing in other teams once sold.

Chelsea attempted the same with Lukaku, agreeing to match the lofty transfer fee that Everton lined up for him, however, the deal did not materialize in the end and Lukaku opted to move to Manchester United in the end. After a bright start to life at United, Lukaku's contributions have been inconsistent of late but there is still no denying the absolute talent and skills that he has.

Lukaku has forever become a missed opportunity for the Blues now. To think of what could've been.

#2 Virgil Van Dijk

Van Dijk rejected Chelsea because he felt that the Blues' short term approach would hinder his development.

The Dutchman had been embroiled in a lengthy transfer saga at his previous club Southampton, where his performances first caught the eye of scouts from clubs across Europe. He looked rock solid at the heart of the Southampton defense and his consistent performances drew the attention of heavyweights like Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea.

Southampton were unwilling to part with their prized asset and in due course, the situation became rather ugly, with Southampton accusing Liverpool of making unwarranted advances towards Van Dijk and rejecting transfer requests handed in by the Dutchman.

While Chelsea were always an outlier contender to sign him, in the end they did everything that they could to land him, however, he did not accept Chelsea's advances and deliberately chose to ignore them and focus on transferring to Liverpool instead. His transfer request was also submitted with the intention of joining Liverpool, and not Chelsea.

Chelsea were willing to pay the lofty transfer fee that Southampton demanded and tried to bring him to the Bridge on generous contract terms as well, carefully outlining the project that was being worked on and emphasizing the prominent role that they had envisioned for him in the future. They were willing to provide a regular starting spot and responsibility to Van Dijk as well, however, there is only so much that a club can do to convince a player to sign with them.

In the end, Van Dijk rejected Chelsea and chose to play for Liverpool instead. Antonio Conte revealed that another reason why Chelsea could not sign Van Dijk was that Liverpool were armed with finances from the sale of Coutinho to Barcelona and the fact that they were able to pay £75 million, which is a world record for a defender, proved too much for Chelsea.

In the end, Van Dijk revealed that he felt that he would develop better at Liverpool over Chelsea, who he feels have a short term mentality. According to Van Dijk, Chelsea are prone to frequent management and player changes, as their focus is on immediate returns and not long term development.

The fact that former Chelsea players like Lukaku, Salah and De Bruyne, who were sold despite proving their potential and then developed into phenomenons further cemented this image. While Chelsea could certainly do with a general like Virgil Van Dijk in the heart of their defense, it had become clearly evident that no deal would materialize simple because Van Dijk had decided against signing for the Blues and opted to ply his trade in Mersyside instead.

#1 Radja Nainggolan

Nainggolan resisted monetary advances and opted to stay at Roma because he feels well settled and respected there.

In the end, one of the biggest and most impactful players ever to reject Chelsea's advances in recent years would be Radja Nainggolan. The mind is tantalized in thinking what a fantastic story Nainggolan and Chelsea could've scripted together in London.

Landing a player of the Belgian's ability is truly a commendable achievement and if there is any club which is capable of pulling off such a coup, its Chelsea.

Chelsea pursued Nainggolan for two seasons straight, but to no avail. He differs from the other players on this list in the sense that he did not reject the approach made by Chelsea for other clubs. Instead, he deliberately chose to continue with Roma.

Whenever Chelsea made an approach, they did so with ample compensation to the Roma management for the Belgian's services. They also offered to generously remunerate Nainggolan for his time in London and tried to lay down a concrete plan, as opposed to a vague idea, as to where and how prominently he would be utilized in Chelsea.

Chelsea favors a 3-4-3 formation as opposed to Roma's preferred 4-3-3. Roma focuses more on defensive stability and having numerous strikers rather than on game distribution through midfield. The midfielders either contribute towards defensive duties or help in attacking through runs down the flank.

Instead, Chelsea wanted to completely capitalize on Nainggolan's midfield abilities and run the game through him. He would've been the link which connected the defense to the attack at Chelsea and would be playing a large part in controlling the game for Chelsea. Moreover, he would also be in charge of transition plays and the conversion from defense to attack would be facilitated through Nainggolan. As such, he would enjoy increased visibility and responsibility, not to mention the high wages and chance to compete for silverware on all fronts.

In the end, though, it was not to be. As is traditional case with many players in Roma, Nainggolan was supremely faithful to the Giallorosi and decided to reject the approach from Chelsea. In an interview earlier this year, he would go on to say that not everything in football is about money - when the topic of his possible transfer to Chelsea was brought up.

Also, Nainggolan revealed that he felt very comfortably settled in Rome and at 29 years of age, did not want to leave everything at Rome to adapt to a new culture and environment in London. This drastic change in scene acted as an important deterrent for Nainggolan and was a big reason behind him staying put at Roma instead. His family is also based out of Rome and he did not want to either leave them and relocate to London or to shift them as well.

In the end, one can only fantasize about the absolutely monstrous pairing that would be of Nainggolan and Chelsea.