Having already snapped up Juan Sebastian Veron from Manchester United for £15m and Joe Cole from West Ham for £6.6m, Blues boss Claudio Ranieri shelled out another £15.8m on Mutu.

Earlier in the summer, Damien Duff joined for £17m from Blackburn and Chelsea also captured Glen Johnson, Geremi and Wayne Bridge.

CHELSEA'S SUMMER SPREE...

Goalkeeper

Defence

Glen Johnson - SIGNED FOR £6M

Alessandro Nesta - Shortly after the takeover at Stamford Bridge, AC Milan revealed they had turned down a £35m offer for the Italian defender from an "English club".

Wayne Bridge - SIGNED FOR £7M

Midfield

Damien Duff - SIGNED FOR £17M

Geremi - SIGNED FOR £7M

Steven Gerrard - The Liverpool midfield dynamo has talked of his desire to commit his future to Anfield but Chelsea were nonetheless believed to be preparing a raid.

Juan Sebastian Veron - SIGNED FOR £15m

Jay-Jay Okocha - The Nigerian's skill was one of the highlights of the Premiership last season but he later denied reports that he was interested in a move to London.

Joe Cole - SIGNED FOR £6.6m

Scott Parker - Charlton's 22-year-old was linked with several clubs - but has committed himself to the Addicks by penning a five-year deal.

Jermaine Jenas - The 20-year-old was reportedly recommended to Chelsea by England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson - but Chelsea appeared not to follow up the recommendation.

Kieron Dyer - The former Ipswich midfielder was apparently recommended along with Newcastle team-mate Jenas and though Newcastle were said to be willing to allow him to leave for £25m, a deal never materialised.

Claude Makelele - The Real Madrid midfielder is a key man at the Bernabeu, but is thought to be on wages of 'only' £20,000-a-week. Chelsea were said to be prepared to double that to bring him to Stamford Bridge.

Mark van Bommel - The PSV Eindhoven captain claims Chelsea made a move to sign him from the Dutch side - but the signings of Joe Cole and Juan Sebastien Veron appeared to rule him out of a move.

Attack

Adrian Mutu - SIGNED FOR £15.8M

Christian Vieri - Chelsea's summer spending is expected to reach almost £80m with the £20m signing of the Inter Milan striker.

Patrick Kluivert - The Dutch striker seems to favour staying in Spain with Barcelona despite being available for a cut-price £1.2m to potential buyers.

Andriy Shevchenko - The scorer of the winning penalty in last season's Champions League final, and, like any good player, his name regularly arose in general transfer talk.

Rivaldo - The Brazil World Cup winners' move to AC Milan has turned sour but he is now thought to be considering a move to Qatar along with Gabriel Batistuta.

Thierry Henry - He is happy at Arsenal and has recently penned a new deal - but Chelsea were rumoured to have made a £50m bid for the French international.

Ronaldinho - SIGNED FOR BARCELONA.



Wayne Rooney - This was as unlikely as much as it was ambitious. The Everton wonder kid has emerged as a potential saviour of the Goodison Park side and they are determined to hold onto their prized asset.

Fernando Torres - The Spanish Under-21 is one of the country's hottest young prospects and Chelsea were believed to have made his club, Atletico Madrid, a £28m offer for the 19-year-old.

Raul - The Real Madrid striker's agent claimed Chelsea made a world-record £71.4m bid for the Spanish striker, but Raul immediately rejected it.

Samuel Eto'o - The Cameroon hitman was sold by Real Madrid two years ago but has since been in prolific form for Real Mallorca. Abramovich was reported to have made a £15m bid to the Spanish side for the 22-year-old.

Manager

Fabio Capello - The present boss of AS Roma has been linked as a replacement for manager Claudio Ranieri.

Sven-Goran Eriksson - The current England boss met new owner Abramovich 48 hours after the Russian took charge of Chelsea. Eriksson denied being offered the job and said it was purely a social occasion.