Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho admits he was surprised when former Arsenal midfielder Cesc Fabregas accepted to join the club.
The Spaniard became one of Chelsea's most important players since his arrival from Barcelona after Arsenal turned down a first option to buy him.
And Mourinho says the arrival of the 27-year-old was an unexpected one.
"As a kid he was a fantastic player here," he said.
"He played a final against us, I think 2006, I think something like that when he was 18-19.
"And our midfield in that day was [Michael] Essien, [Claude] Makelele, [Frank] Lampard and [Michael] Ballack and he was playing for Arsenal and he was playing fantastic.
"So since he was 18-19, everybody knew how good he is.
"I never felt that it could work with me because when I was at Chelsea he was at a rival, Arsenal, when I was at Real Madrid he was at a rival, Barcelona so it was unexpected the fact that he wanted to come to England, to Chelsea.
"Unexpected yes, but fantastic for our team yes too because it changed the profile of our team since his arrival.
"Of course you work hard for that and also with the contribution of other players but we were waiting for a player with his characteristics to change a little bit our profile of play.
"And we are happy with the way he adapted for us."
