This article documents the History of Chelsea Football Club, an English association football team based in Fulham, West London. For a general overview of the club, see Chelsea F.C.
Founded in 1905, Chelsea quickly gained a reputation for signing big name players and for attracting large crowds, but failed to win a major trophy in their first fifty years. They spent thirty of their first forty seasons in the First Division, although often found themselves finishing in mid-table or battling relegation. The closest Chelsea came to success was in the FA Cup; they were runners-up in 1915 and losing semi-finalists in 1911, 1920, 1932, 1950 and 1952. The duck was finally broken by manager Ted Drake, who introduced a series of changes at the club and led Chelsea to the League Championship in 1955.
The period 1963–72 saw Chelsea regularly challenge for honours for the first time, although they often narrowly missed out. The League Cup was won in 1965, the FA Cup in 1970 and the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in 1971; they were also FA Cup runners-up in 1967 and League Cup runners-up in 1972. Several problems over the next decade, principally the debt burden caused by an ambitious attempt to redevelop Stamford Bridge, brought the club to the brink of extinction, before a revival under John Neal in the mid-1980s saw the club win the Second Division title and ultimately re-establish itself in the top flight.
A further revival under managers Ruud Gullit and Gianluca Vialli from 1996–2000 saw Chelsea win the FA Cup in 1997 and 2000, the League Cup and UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in 1998, and qualify for the Champions League for the first time; the club have not finished outside of the top six in the Premier League since the 1995–96 season. In 2003, Chelsea were bought by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, ushering in the club's current phase of success. José Mourinho led them to two league titles, an FA Cup and two League Cups in three seasons. The club added a further FA Cup in 2009, and then their first League and FA Cup "Double" in 2010.
Chelsea Football Club were founded on 10 March 1905[2] at The Rising Sun pub, (now The Butcher's Hook) opposite today's main entrance to the ground on the Fulham Road. Since there was already a team named Fulham in the borough, the name of the adjacent borough, the Metropolitan Borough of Chelsea, was settled on after London FC, Kensington FC and Stamford Bridge FC had been rejected.[3] Blue shirts were adopted by Mears, after the racing colors of Lord Chelsea, along with white shorts and dark blue socks.
Chelsea initially considering joining the Southern League, but were rejected following objections from Fulham and Tottenham Hotspur, so they instead applied for admission to the Football League. Their candidacy was endorsed at the Football League AGM on 29 May 1905; a speech by Parker was particularly important, emphasising the new club's financial stability, its impressive new stadium and marquee players such as William "Fatty" Foulke, the 22 stone goalkeeper who had won a league title and two FA Cups with Sheffield United.
28-year-old Scottish international half-back John Robertson was hired as player-manager. The club began with established players recruited from other teams; along with Foulke, Chelsea signed forwards Jimmy Windridge and Bob McRoberts from Small Heath, and Frank Pearson from Manchester City. Chelsea's first league match took place away at Stockport County on 2 September 1905. They lost the game 1–0.[4] Their first home match was against Liverpool in a friendly. They won 4–0. Robertson also scored Chelsea's first competitive goal, in a 1–0 win against Blackpool.[5]
Chelsea finished a respectable 3rd in the Second Division in their first season, but Robertson steadily saw his position undermined by board room interference. He lost the power to select the team in November 1905, and by January 1907 he had left for Glossop.[6] Club secretary William Lewis took temporary charge and led the team to promotion at the end of the season, thanks largely to the goals of Windridge and George "Gatling Gun" Hilsdon. The latter was the first of many prolific strikers/forwards to play for Chelsea; he scored five goals on his debut and 27 in the promotion season en route to becoming the first player to score 100 goals for the club.
Chelsea beat West Brom at Stamford Bridge in September 1905
In 1915, under the shadow of the First World War, Chelsea reached their first FA Cup final, the so-called "Khaki" cup final, owing to the large number of uniformed soldiers in attendance. The match against Sheffield United was played in a sombre atmosphere and staged at Old Trafford in Manchester to avoid disruption in London. Chelsea, minus their top amateur striker, Vivian Woodward, who had sportingly insisted that the team who reached the final ought to keep their places, were seemingly unnerved by the occasion and outplayed for much of the match. Goalkeeper Jim Molyneux's mistake allowed United to score before half-time, but the Blues held out until the final six minutes, when their opponents added two more to win 3–0.
In spite of their checkered fortunes, Chelsea became one of the best-supported teams in the country, with fans attracted by the team's reputation for playing entertaining attacking football and for signing star players, notably half-back Ben Warren and striker Bob Whittingham. The club had the highest average attendance in English football in 1907–08,[7] 1909–10,[8] 1911–12,[9] 1912–13[10] and 1913–14.[11] A crowd of 67,000 attended a league game against Manchester United on Good Friday 1906, a then-record for a football match in London.[12] 55,000 attended the first-ever London derby in the top division, against Woolwich Arsenal, a record for a First Division match. 77,952 attended a fourth round FA Cup tie against Swindon on 13 April 1911.[13]
[edit] Between the wars
1919–20, the first full season following the war, was Chelsea's most successful up to that point. Led by 24 goal striker Jack Cock, the club's latest glamour signing, they finished 3rd in the league – then the highest league finish for a London club – and reached the FA Cup semi-finals, only to be denied by eventual winners Aston Villa, which saw them miss out on a chance to play in the final at Stamford Bridge. The club were relegated again in 1923–24 and in four of the next five seasons were to narrowly miss out on promotion, finishing 5th, 3rd, 4th and 3rd. With long serving mainstays including Willie Ferguson, Tommy Law and Andy Wilson, Chelsea finally reached the First Division again in 1929–30, where the club was to remain for the next 32 years.To capitalise on the 1930 promotion, the club spent £25,000 ($49,000) on three big-name players; Scots Hughie Gallacher, Alex Jackson and Alec Cheyne. Gallacher in particular was one of the biggest talents of his era, known for his goalscoring and for having captained Newcastle to a championship in 1926–27. He and Jackson had also been members of the Wembley Wizards team (as had Law), the Scotland team which beat England 5–1 at Wembley in 1928.
However, though the team occasionally clicked, such as in a 6–2 win over Manchester United and a 5–0 win over Sunderland, none of the trio had the desired impact. Gallacher was Chelsea's top scorer in each of his four seasons, scoring 81 goals in total, but his time in west London was hindered by his personal troubles and punctuated by long suspensions for indiscipline, including a two month ban for swearing at a referee.[14] Jackson and Cheyne struggled to settle at the club and were unable re-capture their previous achievements. The trio didn't make 300 appearances between them and by 1936 all had left at a significant financial loss to the club.[15] Their disappointment epitomised Chelsea's flaws throughout the decade, whereby performances and results rarely matched the calibre of players at the club. Money was spent, but some feel it was too often spent on inappropriate players, especially forwards, while the defence remained neglected.
The FA Cup was to be the closest the club came to silverware. In 1932, the team secured impressive wins over Liverpool and Sheffield Wednesday, and were drawn against Newcastle United in the semi-finals. Tommy Lang inspired Newcastle to a 2–0 lead, before Gallacher pulled one back for Chelsea. The Blues laid siege to the United goal in the second half, but were unable to make a breakthrough and the Geordies went on to lift the trophy.
Calderhead stepped down in 1933 and was replaced by Leslie Knighton, but the appointment saw little change in Chelsea's fortunes. At different times during the decade the club had on its books such players as Tommy Law, Sam Weaver, Syd Bishop, Harry Burgess, Dick Spence and Joe Bambrick, all established internationals, yet their highest league finish in the decade was 8th. Ironically, two of the club's most reliable players during the decade cost them nothing: goalkeeper Vic Woodley, who was to win 19 consecutive caps for England, and centre-forward George Mills, the first player to score 100 league goals for Chelsea. They avoided relegation by two points in 1932–33 and 1933–34, and by one point in 1938–39. Another promising cup run in 1939, which included wins over Arsenal and Sheffield Wednesday, petered out with a home loss to Grimsby Town in the quarter-finals.
The club continued to be one of the country's best-supported teams. The visit of Arsenal on 12 October 1935 attracted a crowd 82,905 to Stamford Bridge, which remains a club record and the second highest ever attendance at an English league match. Crowds of almost 50,000 attended Gallacher and Jackson's home debuts. In 1939, with the club having come no closer to on-field success, Knighton stepped down. He was succeeded by Scotsman and former Queens Park Rangers manager, Billy Birrell.
[edit] The War, Dynamo and the new youth system (1940–52)
Birrell was appointed Chelsea manager shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War. Three games into the 1939–40 season, first class football was abandoned in Britain for the duration of the conflict, meaning that all wartime results are only regarded as unofficial. Chelsea competed in a series of regional competitions and, like every other club, saw their squad severely depleted by the war effort (only two members of Chelsea's 1938–39 team ever played for them again). The club thus fielded a series of "guest" players, most notably Matt Busby, Walter Winterbottom and Eddie Hapgood. They also competed in the Football League War Cup, during which they made their Wembley debut, losing 1–3 to Charlton Athletic in the 1944 final, and beating Millwall 2–0 a year later in front of crowds of over 80,000. After the latter match, John Harris became the first Chelsea captain to lift a trophy at Wembley, receiving the cup from Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
Following the war, Chelsea again spent big, and again bought three big-name forwards, this time Tommy Lawton, Len Goulden and Tommy Walker, for around £22,000. The trio provided both goals and entertainment – Lawton set a new club record by scoring 26 goals in 34 league games in 1946–47[4] – but Chelsea finished 15th that season and never finished above 13th under Birrell. After a falling out with Birrell, Lawton was sold to Notts County for £20,000; his replacement was Roy Bentley, signed from Newcastle United for £11,500 in 1948.
1950 saw Chelsea enjoy another run in the FA Cup. After beating Manchester United 2–0 in a pulsating quarter-final, they were drawn to face London rivals Arsenal at White Hart Lane. Two goals from Bentley put Chelsea in control, but a freak goal from Arsenal (Chelsea's goalkeeper misjudged a corner and punched it into his own net) just before half-time turned the game. Arsenal equalised 15 minutes from full-time and then won the replay 1–0.
A year later, Chelsea seemed destined for relegation: with four games remaining, they were six points behind, at the bottom of the table, and without a win in fourteen matches. After unexpectedly winning the first three, Chelsea went into their final match needing to beat Bolton Wanderers and hoping for the right result between fellow relegation candidates Everton and Sheffield Wednesday. Chelsea won 4–0 and Wednesday beat Everton 6–0, thus ensuring Chelsea's survival on goal average by 0.044 of a goal.[4] In 1952, Chelsea again faced Arsenal in the FA Cup semi-finals and after a 1–1 tie in the first match, lost the replay 3–0. Birrell resigned shortly afterwards.
Birrell's biggest contribution to Chelsea was off the field. In a bid to counter the spiraling cost of transfer fees in football, he oversaw the development of an extensive new youth and scouting programme, headed by ex-players Dickie Foss, Dick Spence and Jimmy Thompson, which would ultimately see the club produce its own players.[18] The policy would provide the core of Chelsea's first team for the next three decades in particular, producing such players as Jimmy Greaves, Bobby Smith, Peter Osgood, Peter Bonetti, Ray Wilkins, Ron Harris, Bobby Tambling, Alan Hudson, Terry Venables and John Hollins.
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