Chelsea fans would be forgiven for forgetting Winston Bogarde's ill-fated spell at Stamford Bridge in the early 2000s - which, over a spell of four years, produced nine top-flight appearances.
Blues fans fumed he was only taking a salary in London, and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink joked he took a private jet to training - but Bogarde "didn't care". Bogarde settled into life in London on a lovely £40,000-per-week - which equates to just over £2million a year.
That mega-salary ultimately pocketed the Dutchman over £10million between 2000 and 2004. And he later explained: "Why should I throw £10million away when it is already mine? From the moment I signed the deal, it was, in fact, my money, my contract."
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Bogarde later admitted he understood why Chelsea fans would be annoyed with him, but he urged them to understand why he couldn't just walk away.
"You must understand my history to understand I would never do that. I used to be poor as a kid; I 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 fortunate 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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The Dutchman had arrived in London with an impressive CV; he had starred at Barcelona as a protege of Louis van Gaal, and he had learned his trade in the famed Dutch system.
Bogarde was part of Ajax's side that won the Champions League in 1995, but he wasn't part of the side for the final. The Dutchman moved to Barca, where he conquered Spain.
However, as the era of Dutch brilliance across European football came to an end in the late 1990s, so did his time at Barcelona - and a move to Chelsea beckoned.
By his own admission, the writing was on the wall regarding Bogarde's Chelsea future from day one. He told The Guardian: "When I had been there a week he [Gianluca Vialli] got sacked. You have to look who the new manager’s going to be and if you’re still going to get a chance."
Claudio Ranieri was appointed, six days later, and Bogarde started to struggle for minutes. He added: "I was feeling hurt as a player. If it was from him or the club, I don’t know – it was very difficult to get a chance.”
These were the pre-Roman Abramovich days too, and Chelsea needed to cut costs, but no club could afford Bogarde, and if they could they didn't want him.
Chelsea wouldn't offload Bogarde on loan - unless he was paid 100% of his salary. During this period too, rumours emerged Bogarde was living in the Netherlands, taking a private jet to training.
"Chelsea fans might correct me. Bogarde. I'm pretty sure, I spoke to Hasselbaink, he used to live in Holland! [He would] get the plane over in the morning, get to training, train, get back on the plane after training, every day Hasselbaink told me this," Darren Bent told talkSPORT.
However, Bogarde has strongly denied these claims: "Of course not. I don’t understand how people come to these ridiculous stories, or lies or whatever."
Bogarde left Chelsea in 2004, two years after he had made his final appearances for the Blues. The Dutchman kicked his last ball for the Blues on 6 November 2002 when he trundled on as a 69-minute substitute.
The Dutchman said, about leaving Chelsea: "Not completely [fallen out of love with football]. But because it was a tough time for me, yeah, I’d had enough of the tough world of football."
Bogarde remerged in the footballing world in 2020, when he was appointed as Erik ten Hag's assistant at Ajax. However, he left the Johan Cruyff Arena when Ten Hag joined Manchester United over the summer.
The Dutchman has been back in the headlines recently as Chelsea fans have warned Todd Boehly to learn from history after the Blues slapped stars on huge contracts.
Mykhaylo Mudryk has been tied down to an eight-year deal, while summer singings Marc Cucurella and Carney Chukwuemeka both have contracts that run until 2028.
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