Life & Times: Adrian Mutu

Life & Times is a regular feature detailing the careers and stories of ex-Premier League stars. In the first installment of this new monthly piece, I look at a player who could realistically claim to have had the most disastrous Premier League stint in its entire 17-year existence.

When I think back to nineties Romanian international football, I am treated to memories of Popescu, Petrescu and Raducioiu.

But the team was controlled and inspired by the legendary Gheorghe Hagi, and Hagi is the only man who is, in terms of skill and ability, a fitting predecessor to this month's Life & Times subject: Adrian Mutu.

Mutu is one of a kind. Having worked up a reputation as a playboy as he climbed the ladder in Italian football, he was snapped up by the newly flush Chelsea. What followed was a tragic act of stupidity which very nearly ended the most promising Romanian career since Hagi.

Born in Calinesti in Romania's Arges County, striker Mutu's career kicked off in 1997 with Romania side FC Arges Pitesti. A successful spell led to a big money move to Dinamo Bucharest. His goal record in Bucharest helped them to a championship win, and attracted the attention of Milanese giants Internazionale.

By now an international player, the San Siro move was Mutu's first career anti-climax, failing to score in just ten matches for the Nerazzurri, and he was loaned and then sold to Verona. The goals slowly returned as Mutu's reputation on and off the pitch went off the scale. In 2002 Parma beckoned, and the Romanian continued to regularly hit the back of the net.

Meanwhile in London, Chelsea had changed beyond all recognition from just years earlier, and were buying up some supreme talents with the money of Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich. Mutu caught the eye of experienced Italian boss Claudio Ranieri, and Chelsea made him the most expensive Romanian footballer of all time.

Cue chaos. A blistering start at the head of the Stamford Bridge attack did not continue, and Mutu quickly fell into the role of 'struggling quality foreign striker in England', like countless before him and many since.

After those early goals, Mutu's stay in England was simply catastrophic, and would have ended the career of a weaker man. As Andriy Shevchenko and Mateja Kezman will testify, Ranieri's replacement Jose Mourinho doesn't suffer non-scoring strikers gladly. With Mutu's image gaining momentum and his increasing propensity for spending one hour too many on the town with one woman too many on his arm, Mourinho and Mutu fell out.

In that situation, there's only one winner. But it came as a surprise to many that Mutu would make it so easy for Mourinho to ship him out. In October 2004, Adrian Mutu was sacked by Chelsea Football Club. He had failed a drug test, admitting to taking cocaine, and was banned from football for seven months. The Premier League never saw him again, and his poor performances in West London, combined with the ban, meant that many assumed his career - or at least the best of it - was over.

To his eternal credit, and the credit of Juventus, Adrian Mutu bounced back in style and rebuilt his Serie A career. With five months left of Mutu's ban, the Old Lady took a chance on him and welcomed him to their training complex and subsequently signed him. In the 2005/06 season he did well for Juve in several league appearances and a handful of games in the Champions League.

Calciopoli led to Mutu's departure from Stadio Delle Alpi, signing for a resurgent Fiorentina side and linking up with Luca Toni. The two struck up a prolific partnership for the Viola, earning the Italian a move to Bayern Munich and cementing Mutu's return to form. His second season at the Artemio Franchi was even better. He has developed a penchant for coming inside from the wing, and the old Adrian Mutu appears to have returned.

The most recent action of an impressive international career (Romania have lost only one game in which Mutu has scored) was to score the country's only goal of Euro 2008 past former colleague Gigi Buffon - and then to have a decisive penalty saved by the iconic goalkeeper.

But it was for off-the-field reasons that Mutu hit the headlines again this summer. He was ordered by the courts to pay Chelsea a frankly massive £9.6m as compensation for the transfer fee they paid for him way back when. I don't care how rich you are, that is one hell of a wedge. An appeal is pending.

So that's the story so far. I am a very big fan of Adrian Mutu. He has made mistakes, including one colossal one, but he has battled away and rebuilt his career at a club (Fiorentina) for which I have a bizarre unexplained fondness. Indiscretions notwithstanding, I think Mutu is a wonderful talent, and I wish him nothing but success. In a way it's a shame he didn't show it consistently in England.