A £60m admission of defeat: How Oscar promised so much and delivered too little at Chelsea

The mooted fee has a pleasing feel for a club indelibly associated with money. Some £60 million, twice what they paid for Andriy Shevchenko and a whole £10 million more than Fernando Torres’ then British record fee. It is twice what Chelsea forked out to bring David Luiz back to Stamford Bridge, £10 million more even than they recouped when Paris Saint-Germain paid a seemingly outlandish sum to buy the Brazilian in 2014.

Oscar’s impending move to Shanghai SIPG offers further proof of 2016’s capacity to generate improbable storylines. It will be a financial boon for the midfielder and the selling club alike. It nonetheless feels like an admission of a defeat when a 25-year-old, reportedly wanted by Paris Saint-Germain in 2014 and Juventus in 2015 and who ought to be approaching his peak, instead decamps for China. The extraordinary investment in players and managers means the standard is rising in the world’s most populous country, but that does not render it comparable to the top European leagues yet.

It also indicates the extent to which Oscar has flattered to deceive. Groomed for greatness, he has seemingly abandoned attempts to realise his potential. Having promised more than he delivered on the pitch, he has delivered far more than he could realistically promise in the transfer market. One who is nowhere near Antonio Conte’s first XI is set to become the seventh most expensive footballer in history.

That mantle currently rests with Kevin de Bruyne, which serves as a reminder of the favouritism Chelsea exerted towards Oscar. He was placed in the pantheon at an early age. He took the No. 11 shirt from Didier Drogba – and eventually returned it to him – and then the No. 8 from Frank Lampard. At a time when Roman Abramovich collected attacking midfielders, he was prioritised, preferred to De Bruyne and Juan Mata, two players who have not got the Premier League silverware Oscar secured in 2015 but have delivered far more over the last 18 months.

“I want to build with Oscar as my No. 10,” said Jose Mourinho, a few months after returning as manager. Chelsea invested faith, as well as money, in him. Conte, demoting Oscar behind Nathaniel Chalobah in the queue for places, was the first to end that policy. He was the first to see through Oscar, to conclude that, for all his quality, he was not productive or consistent or decisive enough.

It was telling that whereas the Italian’s decision to drop Cesc Fabregas generated headlines, the omission of Oscar went comparatively unnoticed. His capacity to blend into the background as Fabregas, Diego Costa and Eden Hazard assumed higher profiles is a reflection of an increasing ineffectiveness. More was expected of them because they had produced more and, in at least two cases, are doing so again.

Oscar’s first start for Chelsea remains arguably his best display, a two-goal performance against Juventus in 2012 when he both marked Andrea Pirlo and scored in spectacular style. It heralded the arrival of a technical, tactical, talented, tackling No. 10, a player who seemed to fuse attacking and defensive attributes. It was little wonder he appealed to Mourinho when he was reappointed the following season.

A prodigy at 21, Oscar feels an underachiever at 25. It is partly because he has scored just 21 league goals in four-and-a-half seasons at Stamford Bridge. If the Juventus match, and scoring four times in his first four Champions League nights, suggested a big-game player, that image has rather been lost.

Players at elite clubs can be defined by their displays against their peers. Oscar scored once against Liverpool on an afternoon remembered rather more for Luis Suarez biting Branislav Ivanovic and twice against an Arsenal side already 3-0 down and reduced to 10 men and already beaten. That is the sum total of his goals against Liverpool, Arsenal, Tottenham and the Manchester clubs.

He was one of those who lost form in the second half of the 2014-15 season, relying on Hazard to score the spring goals to deliver the title, and one of those who slumped at the start of the following season, when only the less gifted but more wholehearted Willian seemed to be trying to keep Mourinho in a job.

Even when he scored in a World Cup semi-final, it was for a team who were trailing 7-0 at the time. There have been too few defining contributions from a player with the ability to influence almost any occasion. It is why the Kaka comparisons have faded over the years and why pragmatic Conte has phased him out.

A Chelsea career that began so brilliantly ends with the sense of anti-climax. Oscar felt that rarity, a player to excite the purists and the pragmatists alike. But as he heads for the exit, his impact will be felt most in Chelsea’s accounts when a record sum arrives.