Posts Tagged ‘Chelsea’
The greatest players in the history of Chelsea Football Club? We could debate that one for hours. Here’s what I think(I haven’t considered current players so JT and Lamps, are not included, although they’ll surely be a shoe-in for any all-time greats list);
Roy Bentley(Striker, 1948-1956) Appearances: 367 Goals: 150
Bentley joined Chelsea from Newcastle in 1948, and went on to captain the Blues to their first league championship in 1955. A quick and skilfull forward with excellent ability in the air. Top scorer in each of his eight seasons at the club. He moved to Fulham in 1956, and later managed Reading and Swansea.
Bobby Tambling(Striker, 1958-1970) Appearances: 370 Goals: 202
Prolific striker with great acceleration and a fantastic left foot, Tambling is Chelsea’s all time record goal scorer. Captained Tommy Docherty’s young side to promotion in 1962-63, and scored in the 3-2 League Cup final defeat of Leicester City in 1965. Left for Crystal Palace in 1970.
Jimmy Greaves (Striker, 1957-1961) Appearances: 169 Goals: 132
His record of 357 goals in 514 league games speaks for itself. Speed, the ability to beat an opponent, and the knack of stealing into space brought him goals at every level. Three times he scored 5 in a match for Chelsea, and he finished top scorer in each of his 4 seasons at the club. Moved to AC Milan in 1961, and to Spurs the following season.
Peter Bonetti (Goalkeeper, 1959-1979) Appearances: 729
Known as “the “Cat” because of his wonderful agility and safe handling, Bonetti was a key member of the cup winning sides in 1965, 1970 and 1971. Joining the club as a junior in 1959 he went on to play 729 games for Chelsea.
Charlie Cooke (Winger, 1966-1972 & 1974-1978) Appearances: 373 Goals: 30
One of the most skillful players ever to play for Chelsea. An orthodox winger with great dribbling skills, Cooke was a member of the 1970 and 1971 cup winning teams. He left to join Crystal Place in 1972, returning 16 months later to play some of his best football for the Blues.
Ron Harris (Defender, 1961-1980) Appearances: 795 Goals: 14
A Chelsea Football Club stalwart. For 19 seasons “Chopper” was the dominant figure in the Blues defense. Captained the cup final teams in ’67, ’70, and ’71. A formidable player renowned for his tough tackling, he holds the club record for most appearances.
Peter Osgood (Striker, 1964-1974 & 1978-1979) Appearances: 380 Goals: 150
Immensely talented player who was a member of the cup winning teams in 1970, and 1971. Ossie is one of only 9 players to have scored in every round of the FA Cup. Moved to Southampton in 1974 but returned to Chelsea for a second stint in 1978. Passed away on 1 March 2006 but will forever be remembered by Chelsea Football Club fans as the “King of Stamford Bridge”.
Ray Wilkins (Midfield, 1973-1979) Appearances: 198 Goals: 34
A gifted central midfielder renowned for the range an accuracy of his passing, Wilkins was Chelsea’s youngest ever captain at the age of just 19. He gained 24 England caps at Chelsea before his transfer to Manchester United in 1979. Currently an assistant to Blues boss Carlo Ancelotti.
Kerry Dixon (Striker, 1983 to 1992) Appearances: 420 Goals: 193
Tall, athletic striker with pace, good heading ability and effective with both feet Dixon is Chelsea’s second highest scorer of all time. Signed from Reading in August 1983 and was the club’s highest scorer in seven of eight seasons during the eighties and early nineties.
Dennis Wise (Midfield, 1990 to 2001) Appearances: 445 Goals: 76
A combative midfielder whose Chelsea career spanned 11 years. Captained Chelsea Football Club to the FA Cup in 1997 and 2000, the League Cup in 1998 and the European Cup Winners Cup in 1998. Moved to Leicester in 2001, and later managed Millwall to the FA Cup final.
Gianfranco Zola (Striker, 1996 to 2003) Appearances: 312 Goals: 80
The prodigiously talented Italian was signed from Parma in 1996. He was an immediate hit, helping Chelsea win the FA Cup and winning FWA Footballer of the Year in his first season. Also won the League Cup, the Cup Winners Cup, European Super Cup, and another FA Cup during his time at Chelsea. Joined his home town club, Cagliari, in 2003. Voted Chelsea Football Club greatest ever player.
Jose Mourinho (Manager, 2004 to 2007) Record: P-185 W-124 D-40 L-21
Outspoken, and often controversial, Mourinho joined Chelsea in 2004. In his first season he ended the Blues 50 year wait for the title. The following season he retained the Premier league, and in 2007 won a FA Cup/League Cup double. Despite his achievements, a strained relationship with Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich led to his departure “by mutual consent” just 6 games into the 2007/2008 season.
Gary Walker is the editor of http://www.The-Football-Club.com – the complete resource on English football. More about Chelsea Football Club is at http://www.the-football-club.com/chelsea-football-club.html – Copyright: You may freely republish this article provided the text, author credits, active links and this notice remain intact.
Article from articlesbase.com
On the 14th March 1905 at the public house The Rising Sun – today called The Butchers Hook – on Fulham Road, London, businessman Henry Mears along with others formed a football club and named it, Chelsea. Fulham would have been the ideal title; unfortunately this had already been taken. Prior to this in 1904, Mears had purchased Stamford Bridge Athletics Ground with the intentions of having Football Clubs play their games there, in particularly Fulham, whom declined. With this, Mears decided to create his own football club.
Like countless other clubs, Chelsea attempted to play in the Southern League but with – and no surprise – Fulham and other Clubs objecting they were refused. Friend and colleague of Mears, Fred Parker then applied for Chelsea to play in the Football League. With some good talking and persuasion by Parker to the appropriate individuals Chelsea were acknowledged to the Football League on May 5th 1905.
Scottish football player and manager John Tait Robertson, was employed as Chelsea Manager and wasted no time in searching for talent for the Club, one of these been the huge 6ft 4”, 22 stone, William “Fatty” Foulke who had already tasted success with Sheffield United, winning the FA Cup.
Chelsea did not get off to the best of starts, loosing their first game away against Stockport County 1-0 on the 2nd September 1905. Their first home game though had a sweeter result when they beat Liverpool 4-0. For their first season in the Second Division, they did make a decent challenge and managed to finish third.
In January 1907, Robertson departed for Glossop, a Football Club based in Derbyshire. Behind closed doors, Chelsea’s Board of Directors typically over ruled the Manager on squad setup and players to play; for Robertson and appropriately so that was the role of Manger and his position became untenable. A Mr William Lewis stepped into Robertson’s shoes for a time been. He was Chelsea’s first Club Secretary and started out as a Football Referee. Unexpectedly, Lewis guided Chelsea to promotion at the end of the season, helped by the football gifts and the first player to score 100 goals for the club, George Hilsdon. Lewis was replaced by Chelsea’s longest serving manager, David Calderhead. He served the club for an astonishing 26 years and with such a lengthy spell at Chelsea, there should have been more achievement to his credit. Even his son, David junior spent time at Chelsea as a player while his Father managed. In total Calderhead oversaw Chelsea play in 966 games.
It wasn’t until 1952 that Chelsea started to have an impact on the game under new manager Ted Drake. Drake was an ex footballer himself, starting his career with Southampton but his time at Arsenal is where he acquired his recognition. Unlike his predecessors, Drake felt more at ease kitted out like a player and not as a manger so it was exceptional to see him in a suit. With the old days gone of the Boards interference, Drake set out to improve the club. Ball work was established in training and instead of looking to the big transfer signings more scouts were sent out to find young hungry talent that would bring quality football gifts to Chelsea. And no longer was the Chelsea Pensioner for this was to be replaced by the lion rampant crest. Fans were urged to get behind the club and team in unison. Patience would be required; for it took until the 1954/55 season for things to start to fall into place and Chelsea were beginning to look and feel like a Football Club with ambition. And they were, winning the League title with a close Wolverhampton Wanderers in second place just 4 points behind. What’s more intriguing is that the majority of the Chelsea squad were considered amateurs with the exception of Roy Bentley. It was difficult for Drake to repeat this accomplishment the following season and Chelsea finished in the bottom half of the table. One Football gift to shine through for the club was top goal scorer and club record holder, scoring 41 goals in a season, Jimmy Greaves but he left for AC Milan in 1961. Without his presence and the balls he once netted, Chelsea drifted down the table meaning it was time for a change and Drake was sacked by the Board.
There was little new manager Tom Docherty could do to prevent relegation to Division 2. He tried and tested various techniques and in doing so sold many of the now aging players. Luckily, Chelsea had many up and coming talented youth players who were eager to prove themselves along with other football gifts. These included Ron “Chopper” Harris, Bobby Tambling, Peter Bonetti and Terry Venables all at Docherty’s disposal. With now a rebuilt squad of such talent, Chelsea finished in second place in Division 2 and on their last game embarrassed Portsmouth with a 7-0 win. On their first season back to Division 1 they finished fifth in the table and the season that followed won the League Cup. There trophy cabinet had space for more but Chelsea missed out on the FA Cup to Manchester United.
Docherty blew hot and cold and this did cause tension with certain players, especially Terry Venables, one for speaking his mind. Venables later signed to Tottenham Hotspur where by this time his old teammate Jimmy Greaves was. Ironically for Docherty and the club it was Tottenham they played against in the first all London FA Cup final and Chelsea’s first appearance at a Wembley final. Chelsea lost 2-1 and not long after Docherty was sacked.
Chelsea really turned the corner in the mid 90’s. 1996 saw the football gifts of Holland legend, Ruud Gullit takes over as manager from Glenn Hoddle who decided to try his hand managing England, as it happens with not much success. Gullit had instant triumph in his opening season, winning the FA Cup, their first significant trophy for 26 years and finishing sixth in the League, Chelsea’s best position since 1990. Regrettably, in 1998 Gullit was sacked over a contract disagreement with the board. His replacement was 33-year-old Gianluca Vialli and within a short space of time had won the Club 2 trophies, the League Cup and the Cup Winners Cup. In 2000 Vialli, with a quality squad that consisted of Zola, Ed de Goey, Frank Leboeuf and Poyet, lifted the FA Cup with a win against Aston Villa. Then they beat Manchester United 2-0 to add the Charity Shield. Vialli by now became Chelsea’s most successful manager. Bizarrely, Vialli was also sacked by the club in the same season for what must be due to a bad start, loosing 5 games on the bounce.
By 2003 Chelsea were financially in trouble with £80 million worth of debt hanging over their head. Unexpectedly, Ken Bates who brought the Club in 1981 for just a pound sold it to Russian billionaire, Roman Abramovich for £60 million, which netted Bates a nice profit. Abramovich, made his masses of wealth through the Russian oil industry, buying it exceptionally cheap then selling it on to international companies.
Now the club had no debts and massive funds to buy players like Joe Cole, Geremi, Glen Johnston to name a few.
In 2004/05 season, Abramovich employed the outspoken Jose Mourinho to succeed Ranieri’s as manager of Chelsea. Up until his replacement, Ranieri’s had created a number of good results for Chelsea and helped them finish as runners up in the League. It appears somewhat unforgiving the reason he was sacked but changes made to the formation of the squad by Ranieri’s during a semi-final with AC Monaco which Chelsea ultimately lost was enough for Abramovich to have him replaced.
The 2004/05 season was slow off the marks for Mourinho but gradually gained momentum. In the company of football gifts like Lampard, Cole, Arjen Robben, Ricardo Carvalho and Captain John Terry, Chelsea were beginning to win more and more games. In November, they beat Everton placing them top of the table and never really looked back. The outstanding goalkeeping skills of Petr Cech gave him his own Premiership record of 1025 minutes without a goal scored against him. With two goals from Lampard, the match with Bolton Wanderers was over and so was the title race. It had been a long fifty years since their last League Title. In addition, this gave Chelsea the double with their 2-0 win over Liverpool FC earlier in the year. The Club was heading for the treble in the Champions League. In the semi-final, they met old rivals Liverpool again. This time the scouse club had different ideas and Chelsea couldn’t manage the same result they had previously, loosing 1-0 to a Liverpool squad who defensibly were flawless. The season after saw, Chelsea keep hold of their League title and during a visit to Anfield, they unleashed something special on their hosts, in annihilating them 4-1. Manchester United were close on the heels towards the end of season but Chelsea put that to bed at Stamford Bridge, beating United 3-0. Also becoming the only London Club to win two League Titles in consecutive years. Mourinho’s Chelsea certainly became the team to beat around this time.
The following 2006/07 season saw Chelsea just have a slight dip in form but not enough to stop them from winning the League Cup, beating Arsenal 2-1. Manchester United were back on top in the League tables but Chelsea, still in super form went on to win the FA Cup again, beating United 1-0 at the new Wembley Stadium.
By this time, it was common knowledge that Mourinho and Abramovich did not see eye to eye on numerous matters and with Mourinho not one to back down he decided to leave Stamford Bridge in September 2007. This was indeed a sad day for Chelsea Football Club and the millions of fans worldwide. It is widely agreed that Jose Mourinho, whether you love or hate him brought many football gifts to Chelsea and one that will be very difficult to substitute.
Israeli Avram Grant, replaced Jose Mourinho but the club lacked the success they were accustomed too. He did manage to lead them to the Champions League final but lost out to Manchester United on penalties, subsequently Grant was sacked shortly after.
It was then, Luiz Felipe Scolari turn, a well-known and respected manger worldwide, who had brought glory to the Brazil national team in the 2002 World Cup. Again, sacked after another short spell on 9th February 2009.
On the 1st June 2009, Carlo Ancelotti took over from temporary manager Guus Hiddink. It is still early days but Chelsea’s first match with Ancelotti in charge was for the Community Shield against Manchester United, which ended 2-2. Chelsea went on to win through penalties 4-1. With that, it was Chelsea’s first win taking penalties in over 10 years.
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The greatest players in the history of Chelsea Football Club? We could debate that one for hours. Here’s what I think(I haven’t considered current players so JT and Lamps, are not included, although they’ll surely be a shoe-in for any all-time greats list);
Bentley joined Chelsea from Newcastle in 1948, and went on to captain the Blues to their first league championship in 1955. A quick and skilfull forward with excellent ability in the air. Top scorer in each of his eight seasons at the club. He moved to Fulham in 1956, and later managed Reading and Swansea.
Prolific striker with great acceleration and a fantastic left foot, Tambling is Chelsea’s all time record goal scorer. Captained Tommy Docherty’s young side to promotion in 1962-63, and scored in the 3-2 League Cup final defeat of Leicester City in 1965. Left for Crystal Palace in 1970.
His record of 357 goals in 514 league games speaks for itself. Speed, the ability to beat an opponent, and the knack of stealing into space brought him goals at every level. Three times he scored 5 in a match for Chelsea, and he finished top scorer in each of his 4 seasons at the club. Moved to AC Milan in 1961, and to Spurs the following season.
Known as “the “Cat” because of his wonderful agility and safe handling, Bonetti was a key member of the cup winning sides in 1965, 1970 and 1971. Joining the club as a junior in 1959 he went on to play 729 games for Chelsea.
One of the most skillful players ever to play for Chelsea. An orthodox winger with great dribbling skills, Cooke was a member of the 1970 and 1971 cup winning teams. He left to join Crystal Place in 1972, returning 16 months later to play some of his best football for the Blues.
A Chelsea Football Club stalwart. For 19 seasons “Chopper” was the dominant figure in the Blues defense. Captained the cup final teams in ’67, ’70, and ’71. A formidable player renowned for his tough tackling, he holds the club record for most appearances.
Immensely talented player who was a member of the cup winning teams in 1970, and 1971. Ossie is one of only 9 players to have scored in every round of the FA Cup. Moved to Southampton in 1974 but returned to Chelsea for a second stint in 1978. Passed away on 1 March 2006 but will forever be remembered by Chelsea Football Club fans as the “King of Stamford Bridge”.
A gifted central midfielder renowned for the range an accuracy of his passing, Wilkins was Chelsea’s youngest ever captain at the age of just 19. He gained 24 England caps at Chelsea before his transfer to Manchester United in 1979. Currently an assistant to Blues boss Carlo Ancelotti.
Tall, athletic striker with pace, good heading ability and effective with both feet Dixon is Chelsea’s second highest scorer of all time. Signed from Reading in August 1983 and was the club’s highest scorer in seven of eight seasons during the eighties and early nineties.
A combative midfielder whose Chelsea career spanned 11 years. Captained Chelsea Football Club to the FA Cup in 1997 and 2000, the League Cup in 1998 and the European Cup Winners Cup in 1998. Moved to Leicester in 2001, and later managed Millwall to the FA Cup final.
The prodigiously talented Italian was signed from Parma in 1996. He was an immediate hit, helping Chelsea win the FA Cup and winning FWA Footballer of the Year in his first season. Also won the League Cup, the Cup Winners Cup, European Super Cup, and another FA Cup during his time at Chelsea. Joined his home town club, Cagliari, in 2003. Voted Chelsea Football Club greatest ever player.
Outspoken, and often controversial, Mourinho joined Chelsea in 2004. In his first season he ended the Blues 50 year wait for the title. The following season he retained the Premier league, and in 2007 won a FA Cup/League Cup double. Despite his achievements, a strained relationship with Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich led to his departure “by mutual consent” just 6 games into the 2007/2008 season.