Farewell to one of Europe\'s true greats

With a sad heart, we at the bridge wave goodbye to Europe's finest defensive midfielder of the past 10 years bar none - Claude Makelele. He has been a huge favourite since joining us from Real Madrid for an absolute bargain of £16.8m. Madrid possibly lost out on their most important player, even in a squad containing Zidane, Figo, Roberto Carlos etc. It's no surprise they won nothing for many years after he left It was Zinedine Zidane who posed the rhetorical question, when Real Madrid let Makelele go to Chelsea in order to buy David Beckham from Manchester United in the summer of 2003, "Why put another layer of gold paint on the Bentley when you are losing the engine?" When the Frenchman arrived at Stamford Bridge, Zidane's words made at least one of his new team-mates sit up and take notice. "I didn't know Maka when he was... [read full story]