CHELSEA : 99 YEARS YOUNG
As Chelsea's centennial year approaches, it's the perfect time to look back at the club's ups, downs, highs and lows...
If the omens are on Chelsea's side then the club will win its second English Championship this coming season in its 100th year. Chelsea's first Championship was won in 1955, when the club celebrated its 50th birthday, in what turned out to be a victorious Jubilee campaign.
Of all London's clubs, Chelsea is the one closest to the centre of Europe's most famous capital city. And it has an illustrious history that reflects the vibrancy of its surrounding geography.
Chelsea's stadium stands proudly on London's Fulham Road, just off the even more famous King's Road, which made its name during the 'Swinging '60's' as a centre for fashion and London's trendiest clubs and people.
The playing style of Chelsea has always reflected that heritage. The club has a reputation for entertaining with stylish football and star players. Now it is looking to add sustained success and regular trophies to that history.
The club's home at Stamford Bridge is now regarded as one of the best stadiums in Europe. It was previously an athletics ground, but was rebuilt to play host to a football team in 1904 in bizarre circumstances.
The club's founder Gus Mears, a building contractor, had been considering selling the site to a railway company when a financier friend he was meeting, Fred Parker, was bitten by Mears's Scottish Terrier dog. Parker made such little fuss about the attack that Mears agreed to follow his friend's idea to establish a new football club there.
Chelsea went straight into the English Football League, the top competition at the time, and set a record straight away by being the only club ever to be accepted without having to qualify through other leagues.
Even then, Chelsea's first captain and goalkeeper was something of a star name. Willie 'Fatty' Foulkes was 6ft 2ins and weighed over 300lbs. He became famous throughout England because, despite his weight, he was surprisingly agile and played for the national team. He was once accused of eating the entire team's pre-match meals when turning up early before an away game.
The club's first great hero, though, was George Hilsdon, an east Londoner who was bought from rivals West Ham, where he was just a reserve. Hilsdon scored over 100 goals for Chelsea and played eight times for England. However, his potential was never fully realised as he was poisoned by mustard gas during World War One. A weather vane on top of one of the stands at Stamford Bridge was made in his likeness as a tribute.
Until recent times the FA Cup, a knockout competition, was as important as the League Championship in England, and in 1915 Chelsea reached its' first of seven FA Cup finals, but lost 3-0 to Sheffield United.
In 1920 Chelsea came third in the League, one year after being nearly relegated. It was the highest finish the club achieved in its first 49 years of existence.
In the 1920s the club hit lean times and spent six seasons in Division Two, but then returned to the top league in 1930. To stay there they spent heavily on new players, most notably Hughie Gallacher, signed from Newcastle United.
The dimunitive Gallacher was the star of his day, a wonderful dribbler with many trick plays. But he was also a wayward character who suffered from drink and discipline problems. Even so the crowd loved his sublime skills. When he returned to Newcastle for the first time with Chelsea, a crowd of 68,386 flocked to see him - a record for a match at the north-east club's stadium, St. James' Park, that still stands today.
Although our new signings did not bring trophies, Chelsea attracted fantastic crowds and were famous for their stylish football. Sometimes Chelsea would lose matches to smaller clubs than themselves, but would often beat the biggest clubs in England at the time.
In 1945, after the Second World War, Chelsea again hit the headlines when the club signed England's biggest star, centre-forward Tommy Lawton. But Lawton only lasted two years. Nevertheless the club was on the verge of its greatest achievement yet.
In 1952, Chelsea appointed its fifth manager, Ted Drake, who transformed the side. Firstly, he ditched the club's nickname. Chelsea had been known as 'The Pensioners' because of the close proximity of Stamford Bridge to an old soldiers' home. Indeed, many of the Chelsea Pensioners are still a regular fixture at Stamford Bridge today, instantly recognisable in their distinctive red army uniforms. Drake, though, decided something new was needed and Chelsea simply became 'The Blues', after the colour of the teams uniform.
He wanted a name which was more forward-looking and within three seasons, 50 years after the club's formation, Chelsea won its only English Championship to date, beating Wolves to the title by four points. Many of the club's heroes from that team can still be seen supporting Chelsea at home fixtures.
Importantly, Drake also put in place a programme to develop young local talent, rather than rely on star names, a policy to which the club is still committed. It soon reaped massive dividends when a young striker named Jimmy Greaves broke through into the first team. Greaves was a revelation, and is regarded today as one of football's greatest ever goal-scorers, an English equivalent of Wayne Gretzky in ice hockey.
Greaves became the youngest player ever in England to score 100 goals; his superb ball control and prodigious strength making him one of the most formidable forward men around. He was sold to Italian football giants AC Milan in June 1961.
Greaves's breakthrough helped usher in a new era for Chelsea. It was the 'Swinging '60s', the Beatles had moved to London and the area around the club's home was suddenly the coolest in the world. Back then Chelsea's team was full of homegrown players, who also became famous faces on the London scene. But they could play football too, and in 1970 finally won the FA Cup, beating Leeds United after a replay.
The following year, Chelsea won the European Cup Winners' Cup, defeating Europe's most famous team, Real Madrid, in the final. That team was filled with some of the most entertaining players in Chelsea's history: Peter Osgood, Alan Hudson, Peter Bonetti, David Webb and two players who later settled in America, Charlie Cooke who now lives in Cincinnati, and Eddie McCreadie, who is in Memphis.
Chelsea were the cup kings of Europe, but the party soon came to a halt as financial problems hit hard. A brand new stand had been built at Stamford Bridge and although it was one of the best in English football, it went way over budget and deadline. The club had to stop buying players and was relegated again to Division Two. In 1983, Chelsea were nearly relegated to Division Three in what was the club's worst ever year.
However a new, and controversial, owner came along. Ken Bates bought the club for one pound, but guaranteed the large debts to the bank and Chelsea began to turn the corner again. Bates, a combative figure, also successfully fought a long battle to stay at Stamford Bridge as property developers attempted to evict the club.
Once that battle was won, the stadium was transformed and so was the team. In 1995, former World Player Of The Year and celebrated Dutch international Ruud Gullit was signed. One year later he became manager. Many great players from overseas were brought in and the club's glory days returned.
In 1997, Chelsea won the FA Cup again, the club's first trophy since 1971. Gullit was the first overseas manager to ever win the trophy. Chelsea was breaking new ground.
The club's tiny Italian forward Gianfranco Zola, full of tricks and genius, was soon to be Chelsea fans' most celebrated player of all time. Zola, a former understudy of Diego Maradona, played with a smile; he was a gentleman to everyone and he became an icon throughout England. In an age of football tribalism amongst supporters, he was cheered even by opposing fans and got standing ovations wherever he went.
Gullit coined the phrase 'sexy football', which epitomised Chelsea and its traditions. The charismatic Dutchman was succeeded at Stamford Bridge by Italian Gianluca Vialli, and Chelsea won a succession of trophies under him, including the European Cup Winners' Cup for a second time. The club also competed in the Champions League, the competition for Europe's biggest clubs, for the first time in its history.
But although the stadium had been transformed, with leisure facilities known as Chelsea Village, and star players attracted to the club, Chelsea were in financial trouble again and the debts had become unmanageable.
It was the summer of 2003 and a billionaire benefactor was looking for a way into football. He was attracted to Chelsea because of its team, its tradition and its location. He wanted to save the club. When the Russian oil tycoon Roman Abramovich bought Chelsea last July, it was not only the biggest revolution in Chelsea's history, it was one of the biggest stories that English football had ever seen.
