Chelsea Football Club
Chelsea is an English football club from London. It was named after the London district Chelsea near which the home stadium Stamford Bridge is situated.
The football club Chelsea (also known as “the blues”, “the pensioners” and “the aristocrats”) was founded in 1905. At present Chelsea has the seventh result in terms of longevity in the Premier League having been there since 1989. The club has recently received the offensive nickname ‘Chelski’ because of the Russian owner of the club, the Russian oil magnate Roman Abramovich.
Stadium
The history of Chelsea is closely connected with Stamford Bridge, the home stadium of the club. The stadium was officially opened on April 28, 1877. For the first 28 years the place was used by the London Sport Club as an arena for track-and-athletics meetings.
In 1904 the property moved to the other owners – brothers Mears. The owners bought some additional land and put it at the club’s disposal. The Mears’ family had owned the stadium until 1970s.
The stadium was designed by Archibald Leitch and could originally hold 5000 spectators on the eastern tribune. At first it was planned the stadium to be sold to the Fulham Football Club, but the deal fell through. The quick-witted owners decided to found their own club and called it ‘Chelsea’. Most football teams of that time used to find a suitable stadium for themselves. To the contrary, Chelsea wouldn’t have been set up were it not for Stamford Bridge.
As the name for the club, the founders decided to take the name of the nearby town Chelsea as the name Fulham already belonged to the well-known team.
History of Chelsea 1905-1989
The famous club Chelsea was founded on March 14, 1905 in the pub ‘Rising Sun’ (at present ‘The Butcher’s Hook’). On May 29, 1905 the team entered the 2nd division. The first match against Stockport County was played in September in 1905. ‘The blues’ lost with the score 1:0. But in the first home match Chelsea beat Liverpool with the score 4:0.
At the beginning ‘the aristocrats’ had to invite players from other teams. But soon its own good players appeared. In 1915 Chelsea reached the final of the Cup of England. But then until the 1950s the club won nothing. In the 1954-55 season for the first time in the history Chelsea got the most important trophy of the English football – the championship in the First Division (the analogue to the Premier League).
In the 60-s Chelsea looked not very attractive. Only in 1965 it won the League Cup for the first time in the history and in 1967 it lost in the finals in the Cup of England.
The beginning of the 1970s was marked by the forthcoming of a powerful team. In 1970 Chelsea won a dramatic victory over Leeds (2:1) in the Cup of England. Next year the club became the holder of the UEFA Cup.
Then the recession came. There was no success neither at the internal championships nor at the world’s stage. The reconstruction of the stadium threatened the financial stability of the club. The first problems with fans arose. The boarder between passion and disorderly conduct blurred completely. Financial problems were mounting, star players were sold out. The club returned to the second division twice.
Chelsea was in need until Ken Bates appeared in the club. He bought out the team for £1 million from the owners of the club. At first he had lots of opponents and enviers but by the end of the 80s the club had gone up and Bates’ opponents turned to his supporters. Meanwhile, the team returned to the Premier League where it is now.
Chelsea: 1990
Chelsea confidently returned to the elite. The manager Bobby Campbell led his players to the respectable fourth place in the championship. At that time the UEFA management punished English clubs and because of this ‘the blues’ didn’t get into the UEFA Cup from the fourth place. The only vacant place was taken by the winners – Aston Villa.
A year later Campbell resigned and his place was taken by Jan Porterfield who helped ‘the aristocrats’ to get into higher places in 1991-92. In the middle of the next year В Porterfield left the team. David Webbs was temporary appointed the manager. Chelsea managed to finish only at the eleventh place. At the end of the season a 35-year-old Glenn Hoddle, the former halfback of the national team of England, appeared in the team.
The first season for Hoddle was a bit crumpled. The team reached the finals of the Cup of England where was beaten by Manchester with the score 4:0. But United made a double in that season and it gave a chance to ‘the blues’ to take part 1994-95 season of the Cup Winners' Cup. They got into semi-finals where the team yielded to the future champions Real from Saragossa.
Chelsea again had a good team with the high class players, Dennis Wise being one of them. But in 1995 the chairperson Ken Bates and the director Matthew Harding spent millions of pounds on buying the Holland legend Ruud Gullit and the forward of Manchester Mark Hughes. In 1995-96 Chelsea finished the season at the 11th place and Hoddle had to leave.
In the 1996-97 season Gullit became the playing coach and even managed to lead the team to the sixth place in the Premier League and won a victory in the Cup of England (Middleborough, 2:0). The season was darkened by the death of the director Matthew Harding in the helicopter crash.
In February 1998 Gullit was suddenly fired and a new playing coach, a 33-year-old forward Gianluca Vialli joined the club. Vialli started his career with the faerie victory in the Cup Winners' Cup. In the 1998-99 season he led the club to the third place. The team was playing pretty well in the Champions League.
In 2000 Vialli led ‘the aristocrats’ to the victory in the Cup of England. By that time ‘the blues’ were a powerful and multifunctional team. The Italian forward Gianfranco Zola, the Dutch goal-keeper Ed de Goey, the Nigerian defender Celestine Babayaro, the Italian half-defender Roberto Di Matteo, the French central half-defender Frank Leboeuf.
Chelsea: New millennium
Vialli was sacked in September 2000 and was replaced by another Italian Claudio Ranieri. Claudio Ranieri led his team to the finals of the Cup of England (2002) but the team couldn’t beat the London Arsenal.
In June 2003 the sensational deal took place – Ken Bates sold Chelsea to the Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich for £140 million. Roman Abramovich paid off all the club’s debts. At that very time the London club impressed the world with the scale of the selection campaign. £100 million was spent for purchasing Claude Makélélé, Glen Johnson, Joe Cole and Damien Duff.
That very year Chelsea reached the Champions League (having beaten Arsenal and lost to Monaco). But Abramovich needed a coach-winner and Ranieri was fired. Fans fell in love with the Russian businessman and in his honor English fans wore fur caps before matches and sang a famous Russian song ‘Kalinka’.
Next season the Russian businessman started conquering other unseen heights. The most talented manager Peter Cenion was replaced. His position was taken by José Mourinho, the winner of the Champions League and the UEFA Cup.
The season 2004-05 became the most successful in the history of Chelsea. For the first time in the last 50 years ‘the Blues’ won the Premier league (95 points in 38 matches). Moreover, there was a victory over Liverpool at the final match of the League’s Cup. The only aim of ‘the Aristocrats’ was to collect all possible trophies. But at first the team experienced the defeat from New Castle at the fifth round of the Cup of England and then there was rather disputable and offensive defeat from Liverpool at the semi-finals of the Champions League.
At the end of the season Chelsea changed the sponsors. Instead of Fly Emirates the team started cooperation with the famous world brands Adidas and Samsung. A 50-million contract became the biggest contract in the English football history having overcome the 36-million agreement between Manchester United and Vodafone.
The season began with the pointlike selection. The team got rid of the ballast – some useless players were sold. Ernan Crespo returned from Milan. The promising players Shaun Wright-Phillips and Michael Essien were purchased.
The 2005-06 season began very successfully. On August 7, 2005 Chelsea beat Arsenal at the Community Shield Cup. By September 23, 2005 Chelsea had won seven times. It hadn’t lost and hadn’t ended any game in a draw. The goal-keeper Petr Čech had missed no goals.
Chelsea: Awards
Premier League: champions, 2004-05; runners-up, 2003-04
1st division (at that time the highest stage in England): champions, 1954-55
2nd division: champions, 1983-84, 1988-89; runners-up, 1906-07, 1911-12, 1929-30, 1962-63, 1976-77
Cup of England: champions, 1970, 1997, 2000; runners-up, 1915, 1967, 1994, 2002
League Cup: champions, 1965, 1998, 2005; runners-up, 1972
Community Shield: champions, 1956, 2000, 2005; runners-up, 1971, 1997
Full Members Cup: champions, 1986, 1990
UEFA Cup Winners' Cup: champions, 1970-71, 1997-98
UEFA Super Cup: champions, 1998
Youth Cup: champions, 1960, 1961; runners-up, 1958
The owners of the team is the famous Russian businessman Roman Abramovich. Because of this the English fans sing the song ‘Kalinka-malinka’ at the beginning of matches.
On September 20, 2007 the club officially proved the departure of José Mourinho and placed the official announcement about this on the official site of Chelsea. It said: “Today the football club Chelsea and José Mourinho have canceled the working agreement by mutual consent ». Now the main coach of the club is the Italian specialist Avram Grant who has worked before as a sporting director in the football club Chelsea and has come from the national Israeli team and the football club Portsmouth.
On January 19, 2008 Chelsea won its 300th victory in the Premier league. (Chelsea played with Birmingham, 1:0).
Titles:
Champions of England — 1955, 2005, 2006
Cup of England — 1970, 1997, 2000, 2007
Cup of English League — 1965, 1998, 2005, 2007
FA Community Shield — 1955, 2000, 2005
UEFA Cup Winners' Cup — 1971, 1998
UEFA Super Cup — 1998
Current squad
1. Alex (defender)
2. Ashley Cole (defender)
3. Branislav Ivanović (defender)
4. Daniel Sturridge (forward)
5. Deco (midfielder)
6. Didier Drogba (forward)
7. Fabio Borini (forward)
8. Florent Malouda (midfielder)
9. Frank Lampard (vice-captain) (midfielder)
10. Henrique Hilário (goal-keeper)
11. Jeffrey Bruma (defender)
12. Joe Cole (midfielder)
13. John Obi Mikel (midfielder)
14. John Terry (captain) (defender)
15. José Bosingwa (defender)
16. Juliano Belletti (defender)
17. Michael Ballack (midfielder)
18. Michael Essien (midfielder)
19. Nemanja Matić (midfielder)
20. Nicolas Anelka (forward)
21. Paulo Ferreira (defender)
22. Petr Čech (goal-keeper)
23. Ricardo Carvalho (defender)
24. Ross Turnbull (goal-keeper)
25. Salomon Kalou (forward)
26. Sam Hutchinson (defender)
27. Yuri Zhirkov (midfielder)
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