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Chelsea F.C.

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Chelsea
Chelsea logo
Full nameChelsea Football Club
Nickname(s)The Pensioners, The Blues
Founded1905
GroundStamford Bridge
Fulham
London
Capacity42,360
ChairmanUnited States Bruce Buck
(for Russia Roman Abramovich)
ManagerPortugal José Mourinho
LeagueFA Premier League
2005-06Premier League, 1st

Chelsea Football Club (also known as The Blues or previously as The Pensioners), founded in 1905, are an English Premier League football team. The club's home ground is the 42,360 capacity Stamford Bridge football ground in Fulham, south-west London. Despite their name, the club is based just outside the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. It is on the Fulham Road, which runs between Fulham and Chelsea. The club have won three league titles, three FA Cups, three League Cups and two UEFA Cup Winners' Cups. They are the reigning league champions for the second year in a row (2005 and 2006).

Stamford Bridge

For main article see Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea play home fixtures at Stamford Bridge, London

Chelsea have only ever had 1 home ground, Stamford Bridge, where they have played since foundation. It was officially opened on 28 April 1877. For the first 28 years of its existence it was used almost exclusively by the London Athletic Club as an arena for athletics meetings and not at all for football. In 1904 the ground was acquired by H A (Gus) Mears and his brother, J T Mears, who had previously acquired additional land (formerly a large market garden) with the aim of staging football matches on the now 12.5 acre (51,000 m²) site. The Mears family remained the owners of the ground (and subsequently the Club) until the 1970s.

Stamford Bridge was designed for the Mears family by the noted football architect Archibald Leitch. They offered the stadium to Fulham Football Club, but the offer was turned down. As a consequence, the owners decided to form their own football club to occupy their new ground. Most football clubs were founded first, and then sought grounds in which to play, but Chelsea were founded for Stamford Bridge. Since there was already a football club named Fulham in the borough, the founders decided to adopt the name of the adjacent borough of Chelsea for the new club, having rejected names such as Kensington FC, Stamford Bridge FC and London FC.

Starting with an open bowl-like design and one covered terrace, Stamford Bridge had an original capacity of around 100,000. The early 1930s saw the construction of a terrace on the southern part of the ground with a roof that covered around 1/5th of the stand. It eventually became known as the "Shed end", the home of Chelsea's most loyal and vocal supporters, and particularly came into its own during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. The exact origins of the name are unclear, but the fact that the roof looked like a corrugated iron shed roof played a part.

During the 1960s, the club's owners embarked on a modernisation of Stamford Bridge with plans for a 60,000 all-seater stadium. Work was begun on the East Stand in the early 1970s but the cost almost brought the club to its knees, which led to the sale of the freehold to property developers. Following a long legal battle, it wasn't until the mid-1990s that Chelsea's future at the stadium was secured and renovation work resumed. The north, west and southern parts of the ground were converted into all-seater stands and moved closer to the pitch, and the current legal capacity of Stamford Bridge is 42,360. Due to its location in a built-up part of London on a main road and next to a railway line, there are obvious constraints on further expansion, something deemed as necessary for Chelsea to compete with their rivals. As a result the club have been linked with a move away from Stamford Bridge.[1]

The pitch is now owned by Chelsea Pitch Owners, an organisation that took out a loan to purchase the stadium and also the rights to the Chelsea FC name. This was done to ensure the stadium could never again be sold to developers. It also means that if someone tries to move the football club to a new stadium they could not use the name.

History

Template:Details2 Chelsea F.C. was founded on March 14, 1905 at The Rising Sun pub (now The Butcher's Hook), opposite today's main entrance to the ground on the Fulham Road, and were elected to the Football League shortly afterwards. The club began with established players recruited from other teams and promotion to the top flight was swift, but their early years saw little success, save for an FA Cup final in 1915, where they lost to Sheffield United. Chelsea gained a reputation for signing star players and for being entertainers, but made little impact on the English game in the inter-war years. Former England centre-forward Ted Drake became manager in 1952 and proceeded to modernise the club. He removed the club's Chelsea pensioner crest, improved the youth set-up and training regime, re-built the side, and led Chelsea to their first major trophy success - the League championship - in 1954–55. The following season saw UEFA create the European Champions' Cup, but after objections from The Football League and the FA Chelsea were persuaded to withdraw from the competition before it started.[2]

Tommy Docherty became manager in 1961 with the club facing relegation, which he was unable to prevent. In his first full season as manager, Docherty led Chelsea to promotion again with an impressive new, youth-orientated team. The new Chelsea side, epitomised by cult hero Peter Osgood - talented, stylish and occasionally self-destructive - oozed charisma and class and soon built up a major following, but ultimately failed to match its swagger with on-field triumphs, and endured several near-misses. The League Cup was won in 1965, but in three seasons the side were beaten in three semi-finals and were FA Cup runners-up. They also narrowly missed out on winning the league title in 1964-65. In 1970 Chelsea ran out FA Cup winners, beating Leeds United 2–1 in a pulsating final replay. A UEFA Cup Winners' Cup triumph was added to the haul the following year - Chelsea's first European honour - with another replayed win, this time over Real Madrid in Athens.

Chelsea in a recent match against Tottenham Hotspur

Following that high, the team declined dramatically. Disciplinary issues saw key players transferred while an over-ambitious redevelopment of the stadium (which only got as far as the pioneering East Stand, which retains its place even in the modern stadium) threatened the financial stability of the club, leading to the sale of more players and later the sale of the Stamford Bridge freehold. The team were relegated and various managers came and went, all of whom were hamstrung by the club's financial woes. Further problems were caused by a fearsome reputation for violence amongst a section of the supporters (the boundary between passion and hooliganism being dangerously narrow in those days) and the club started to fall apart both on and off the field.

Chelsea were, at the nadir of their fortunes, acquired by businessman Ken Bates for the sum of £1, and Bates proved to be a real fighter as the new Chairman, although his opponents included supporters (who did not take kindly to his suggestion of electrified fences to keep them off the pitch) as well as the property developers who now owned the freehold. On the pitch, the team had fared little better, finishing 18th in the Second Division in 1982–83. But in the summer of 1983 manager John Neal put together an impressive new team for less than £500,000. The new-look Chelsea won the Second Division in 1983–84 and then secured two successive 6th place finishes. Following that, the club declined again and were relegated in 1988, before bouncing back immediately by emphatically winning the Second Division championship.

Chelsea were unconvincing in the new Premier League, but off the pitch and after a decade-long legal battle, Bates finally reunited the stadium freehold with the club by doing a deal with the banks of the property developers, who had been bankrupted by a market crash. Glenn Hoddle was appointed player-manager for the 1993–94 season, and led the club to the final of the FA Cup in 1994. In a move significant for the club's future, Hoddle also signed former World Player of the Year, Ruud Gullit, before leaving to take charge of the English national side in 1996.

Gullit became player–manager and added several top-class international players to the side, particularly Gianfranco Zola, as the club won the FA Cup and established itself as one of England's top sides again, earning a reputation for playing Sexy Football. Gullit was then sacked after a dispute with Bates and Gianluca Vialli was installed as player-manager. Vialli led the team to victory in the League Cup and the Cup Winners' Cup in 1998, a near-miss in the Premier League title race in 1998-99 and the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals in 2000. In 2000, Chelsea were again FA Cup winners with a 1-0 win over Aston Villa. A disappointing start to the 2000–01 season saw Vialli sacked in favour of another Italian, Claudio Ranieri. Ranieri guided Chelsea to the 2002 FA Cup final and Champions League qualification in 2002–03.

In June 2003, Bates sold Chelsea to Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich for £60 million, thus completing the biggest-ever sale of an English football club. Over £100 million was spent on new players. The spending saw an upturn in the club's form, but they had to settle for 2nd place in the Premiership, and reaching the Champions League semi-finals. Ranieri was sacked and replaced by successful Portuguese coach José Mourinho, who had just guided FC Porto to UEFA Champions League success.

2005 was Chelsea's centenary year. Led by captain John Terry and high-scoring midfielder Frank Lampard, they celebrated it in style by becoming Premiership champions in a record-breaking season (most clean sheets, fewest goals conceded, most victories, most points earned), League Cup winners with a 3–2 win over Liverpool at the Millennium Stadium and reaching the Champions League semi-finals. The following year, they were again League Champions, equalling their own Premiership record of 29 wins set the previous season. They also became the fifth team to win back-to-back championships since the Second World War and the only London club to do so since the 1930s.

Crest

File:Cfcpensioner.gif
Chelsea's first crest
File:Chelsea's old badge.jpg
Club crest 1953-1986
File:Vilogo.jpg
Centenary club crest

Since the club's foundation, Chelsea have had four main crests, though all underwent minor variations. In 1905, Chelsea adopted as its first crest the image of a Chelsea pensioner, which obviously contributed to the pensioner nickname, and remained for the next half-century, though it never appeared on the shirts. As part of new manager Ted Drake's modernisation of the club from 1952, he insisted that the pensioner badge be removed from the match day programme in order to change the club's image and that a new crest be adopted. As a stop-gap, a temporary emblem comprising simply the initials C.F.C. was adopted for one year. In 1953, the club adopted what is arguably its most famous crest - that of an upright blue lion looking backwards and holding a staff - which was to endure for the next three decades.

File:Chelseaoldcrest.gif
Club crest 1986-2005

The crest was based on elements in the coat of arms of the Metropolitan Borough of Chelsea (discussed and illustrated on this website) with the "lion rampant regardant" taken from the arms of then club president Viscount Chelsea and the staff from the Abbots of Westminster, former Lords of the Manor of Chelsea. This was also the first club badge to appear on shirts, since the policy of putting the crest on the shirts was only adopted in the early 1960s.

In 1986, with new owners now at the club, Chelsea's crest was changed again as part of another attempt to modernise and to capitalise on new marketing opportunities, because new Chairman Ken Bates was advised he had not acquired any copyright in the existing crest. The new badge featured a more naturalistic non-heraldic lion, yellow and not blue, standing over the C.F.C. initials. It lasted for the next 19 years, though with some modifications such as the use of different colours. With new ownership, and the club's centenary approaching, combined with demands from fans for the club's traditional badge to be restored, it was decided that the crest should be changed again in 2004. The new crest was officially adopted for the start of the 2005-06 season and marks a return to the older design of the blue heraldic lion holding a staff.

Colours

Chelsea's first home colours

Chelsea have always worn blue shirts, though they initially adopted a lighter shade than the current version, and unlike today wore white shorts and dark blue socks. The lighter blue was taken from the racing colours of then club president, Earl Cadogan (Lord Chelsea). This light blue kit was short-lived, however, and soon replaced by a royal blue version. When Tommy Docherty became manager in the early 1960s he changed the kit again, adding blue shorts (which have remained ever since) and white socks, believing it made the club's colours more distinctive, since no other major side used that combination.

Chelsea's traditional away colours are all yellow or all white with blue trim but, as with most teams, they have had some more unusual ones. The first away strip consisted of black and white stripes and for one game in the 1960s the team wore Inter Milan-style blue and black stripes, again at Docherty's behest. Other memorable away kits include a mint green strip in the 1980s, a red and white checked one in the early 90s and a graphite and tangerine addition in the mid-1990s, which is widely seen by fans as one of the worst ever. All kits are discussed on Chelsea's official site.

Chelsea's kit is currently manufactured by Adidas, which is contracted to supply the club's kit from 2006 to 2011. Their previous kit manufacturer was Umbro. Chelsea's first shirt sponsor was Gulf Air, agreed midway through the 1983-84 season. Following that, the club were sponsored by Grange Farms, Bai Lin tea and Italian company Simod before a long-term deal was signed with computer manufacturer Commodore International in 1989 (Amiga, an off-shoot of Commodore, also appeared on the shirts). Chelsea were subsequently sponsored by Coors beer (1995-97), Autoglass (1997-2001) and Emirates Airline (2001-05). Chelsea's current shirt sponsor is Samsung Mobile.

Rivalries

Chelsea fans have a strong rivalry with various clubs.[3] The club's nearest neighbours are Fulham (Chelsea FC is itself based in the Hammersmith and Fulham borough), but they are generally not seen as big rivals by Chelsea fans, because the clubs have spent the greater part of the last 40 years in separate divisions. However, the West London derby may have been rekindled somewhat following crowd trouble after a recent match between the sides. Fans of other teams, owing to Abramovich's Russian heritage, have given the team the derisive, and somewhat inaccurate, name "Chelski" in response. ('ski' is a suffix associated with all Slavic languages, but more commonly with the Polish language).

The club Chelsea fans regard as their biggest rival is partially a generational issue. A strong rivalry with Leeds United dates back to their heated and controversial FA Cup final in 1970, which coloured all future matches between the sides, especially during the 1970s and 1980s. Chelsea are rivals with numerous London clubs such as West Ham United and Millwall (east and south London), with matches against those two always passionate and in the past often marred by crowd trouble. However, as neither side regualary challenge Chelsea in the league, they may be discounted. Chelsea also enjoy a fierce and longstanding rivalry with North London clubs Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal, which have both been exacerbated by some memorable matches between the sides.

In recent years, the likes of Liverpool and Manchester United could be added to the list, with Chelsea challenging for major honours in direct competition with those clubs and, again, having been involved in some contentious matches with them. In European competition, Chelsea's most bitter rivalry would appear to be with F.C. Barcelona, with the two competing to be among the best sides in Europe and having played in some highly controversial matches in the UEFA Champions League in recent seasons.[4]

Club records

Further information: Chelsea F.C. statistics

Chelsea's highest appearance-maker is ex-captain Ron Harris, who played in 795 first-class games for the club between 1961 and 1980. This record is unlikely to be broken in the near future; Chelsea's current highest appearance-maker is John Terry with 274.[5] The record for a Chelsea goalkeeper is held by Harris' contemporary, Peter Bonetti, who made 729 appearances (1959-79). With 116 caps (67 while at the club), Marcel Desailly of France is Chelsea's most capped international player.

Bobby Tambling is Chelsea's all-time top goalscorer, with 202 goals in 370 games (1959-70). Six other players have also scored over 100 goals for Chelsea: Kerry Dixon, Roy Bentley, Peter Osgood, Jimmy Greaves, George Mills and George Hilsdon, but the only player in the club's recent history to have come close to matching Tambling's record is Dixon (1983-92), who scored 193 goals. Greaves holds the record for the most goals scored in one season (43 in 1960-61). Chelsea's current top-scorer is Frank Lampard with 70.[5]

Officially, Chelsea's highest home attendance is 82,905 for a First Division match against Arsenal on 12 October 1935. However, an estimated crowd of over 100,000 attended a friendly match against Soviet team Dynamo Moscow on 13 November, 1945.[6] The modernisation of Stamford Bridge during the 1990s and the introduction of all-seater stands mean that neither record will be broken for the forseeable future. The current legal capacity of Stamford Bridge is 42,360.

Chelsea hold numerous records in English and European football. They hold the record for the highest points total for a league season (95), the fewest goals conceded during a league season (15), the most consecutive clean sheets during a league season (10), the highest number of Premier League victories in a season (29), the highest number of clean sheets overall in a Premier League season (25) (all set during the 2004-05 season) and the most consecutive clean sheets from the start of a league season (6) (2005-06). Their 21–0 aggregate victory over Jeunesse Hautcharage in the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in 1971 remains a European record. Chelsea may also hold the British transfer record, but the fee for Andriy Shevchenko, estimated at around £30m, remains unconfirmed.[7]

Current squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player
1 GK Czech Republic CZE Petr Čech
3 DF England ENG Ashley Cole
4 MF France FRA Claude Makélélé
5 MF Ghana GHA Michael Essien
6 DF Portugal POR Ricardo Carvalho
7 FW Ukraine UKR Andriy Shevchenko
8 MF England ENG Frank Lampard (vice c)
9 DF Netherlands NED Khalid Boulahrouz
10 MF England ENG Joe Cole
11 FW Ivory Coast CIV Didier Drogba
12 MF Nigeria NGA Mikel John Obi
13 MF Germany GER Michael Ballack
No. Pos. Nation Player
14 MF Cameroon CMR Geremi Njitap
16 MF Netherlands NED Arjen Robben
18 DF England ENG Wayne Bridge
19 MF France FRA Lassana Diarra
20 DF Portugal POR Paulo Ferreira
21 FW Ivory Coast CIV Salomon Kalou
23 GK Italy ITA Carlo Cudicini
24 MF England ENG Shaun Wright-Phillips
26 DF England ENG John Terry (c)
40 GK Portugal POR Henrique Hilário
43 DF England ENG Ryan Bertrand
44 DF England ENG Michael Mancienne

Players out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player
2 DF England ENG Glen Johnson (at Portsmouth, until May 2007)
-- MF England ENG Anthony Grant (at Wycombe Wanderers, until March 2007)
-- MF Argentina ARG Juan Sebastián Verón (at Estudiantes, until August 2007)
-- FW Argentina ARG Hernán Crespo (at Internazionale, until August 2008)

Template:Fs blank column

For recent transfers, see 2006-07 in English football.

Club Officials

Boardroom

Management

Notable former players

Further information: List of Chelsea F.C. players

Chelsea player of the year (1967–2006)

Year Winner
1967 Peter Bonetti
1968 Charlie Cooke
1969 David Webb
1970 John Hollins
1971 John Hollins
1972 David Webb
1973 Peter Osgood
1974 Gary Locke
1975 Charlie Cooke
1976 Ray Wilkins
1977 Ray Wilkins
1978 Micky Droy
1979 Tommy Langley
1980 Clive Walker
1981 Petar Borota
1982 Mike Fillery
1983 Joey Jones
1984 Pat Nevin
1985 David Speedie
1986 Eddie Niedzwiecki
 
Year Winner
1987 Pat Nevin
1988 Tony Dorigo
1989 Graham Roberts
1990 Ken Monkou
1991 Andy Townsend
1992 Paul Elliott
1993 Frank Sinclair
1994 Steve Clarke
1995 Erland Johnsen
1996 Ruud Gullit
1997 Mark Hughes
1998 Dennis Wise
1999 Gianfranco Zola
2000 Dennis Wise
2001 John Terry
2002 Carlo Cudicini
2003 Gianfranco Zola
2004 Frank Lampard
2005 Frank Lampard
2006 John Terry

Managers

Further information: List of Chelsea F.C. managers
Name Period
John Tait Robertson 1905–1906
William Lewis[8] 1906–1907
David Calderhead 1907–1933
Leslie Knighton 1933–1939
Billy Birrell 1939–1952
Ted Drake 1952–1961
Tommy Docherty 1962–1967
Dave Sexton 1967–1974
Ron Suart 1974–1975
Eddie McCreadie 1975–1977
Ken Shellito 1977–1978
Danny Blanchflower 1978–1979
Geoff Hurst 1979–1981
John Neal 1981–1985
John Hollins 1985–1988
Bobby Campbell 1988–1991
Ian Porterfield 1991–1993
David Webb 1993
Glenn Hoddle 1993–1996
Ruud Gullit 1996–1998
Gianluca Vialli 1998–2000
Claudio Ranieri 2000–2004
José Mourinho 2004—

Trivia

1st: 3 5th: 5 9th: 2 13th: 5 17th: 1 21st: 2
2nd: 1 6th: 7 10th: 1 14th: 4 18th: 6 22nd: 2
3rd: 4 7th: 1 11th: 6 15th: 1 19th: 6
4th: 2 8th: 3 12th: 5 16th: 2 20th: 2

Honours

Notes

  1. ^ "Chelsea plan Bridge redevelopment". BBC. Retrieved 27th August. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  2. ^ "The great Chelsea surrender". The Times. Retrieved 27th August. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  3. ^ A 2004 poll conducted by Planetfootball.com of fans of all English league clubs found Chelsea's main rivalries to be with (in order): Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United. See "here". Planetfootball.com. Retrieved 27th August. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  4. ^ For more details on the controversies in recent Chelsea vs FC Barcelona matches, see José Mourinho, Frank Rijkaard, Anders Frisk, History of Chelsea F.C.
  5. ^ a b "soccerbase.com". Retrieved 21st August. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help). Cite error: The named reference "current player" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  6. ^ The turnstiles for the Dynamo match were closed with 74,496 in the ground, but thousands continued to enter illegally. The attendance is invariably put at around 100,000. See "here". chelseafc.com. Retrieved 27th August. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  7. ^ Shevchenko's transfer fee is undisclosed and estimates vary from £25m to £35m, although this does top the £24m paid for Michael Essien. See "Shevchenko moves to Chelsea". Skysports.com. Retrieved 27th August. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help) and "Chelsea complete Shevchenko deal". BBC. Retrieved 27th August. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  8. ^ Caretaker manager
  9. ^ "Chelsea into history books without a Briton". The Telegraph. Retrieved 27th August. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help) Two English players (Jody Morris and Jon Harley) did come on as second-half substitutes.
  10. ^ "All Time League Attendance Records". Retrieved 27th August. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  11. ^ Until 1992, when the Premier League was formed, the top tier of English football was known as the First Division

References

  • Batty, Clive (2004). Kings of the King's Road: The Great Chelsea Team of the 60s and 70s. Vision Sports Publishing Ltd. ISBN 0-9546428-1-3.
  • Batty, Clive (2005). A Serious Case of the Blues: Chelsea in the 80s. Vision Sports Publishing Ltd. ISBN 1-905326-02-5.
  • Glanvill, Rick (2005). Chelsea FC: The Official Biography - The Definitive Story of the First 100 Years. Headline Book Publishing Ltd. ISBN 0-7553-1465-4.
  • Hadgraft, Rob (2004). Chelsea: Champions of England 1954-55. Desert Island Books Limited. ISBN 1-874287-77-5.
  • Harris, Harry (2005). Chelsea's Century. Blake Publishing. ISBN 1-84454-110-X.
  • Ingledew, John (2006). And Now Are You Going to Believe Us: Twenty-five Years Behind the Scenes at Chelsea FC. John Blake Publishing Ltd. ISBN 1-84454-247-5.
  • Matthews, Tony (2005). Who's Who of Chelsea. Mainstream Publishing. ISBN 1-84596-010-6.
  • Mears, Brian (2004). Chelsea: A 100-year History. Mainstream Sport. ISBN 1-84018-823-5.
  • Mears, Brian (2002). Chelsea: Football Under the Blue Flag. Mainstream Sport. ISBN 1-84018-658-5.

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