Chelsea fan here, from what I've read in the last few minutes, Lescott seems to be polarising opinion but during the summer and during that period of silence from John Terry, the opinion among some Chelsea fans was that if worst came to worst, one option to try and replace him would have been Brede Hangeland, who probably would have cost £10m tops, Fulham would have taken it and Roy Hodgson would have unearthed someone else.
So when the whole Terry situation was resolved, I was surprised that Mark Hughes started courting Lescott, who IMO is good enough cover but not the sort of player you'd want as a defensive mainstay for a season - he wasn't even the best central defender at Everton.