Anfield hotel

☆ Centennial history of the Blue Army ☆

1905 family photo

Chapter 1: Decisions made a hundred years ago.

The establishment of Chelsea Football Club was related to a Sunday morning in the autumn of 1904. On that day, Henry Augustus Mills changed his mind and founded one of the most successful clubs in the Premier League a hundred years later.

Mills is the founder of Chelsea. He is an avid sports fan. A hundred years ago, football flourished in Britain, but there was still no top league team in London. Mills was optimistic about the football market and decided to step in. He bought Stamford Bridge Stadium and planned to recruit teams. First of all, Mills found the existing Fulham team and hoped that they would enter Stamford Bridge, but Fulham stayed at craven Farm (the team is now at home) because the price of the rented venue was not settled. Later, Mills felt the difficulty in running a stadium, and he was ready to quit.

Stamford Bridge 1905

1On a Sunday morning in the autumn of 904, Frederick Parker, a partner of Mill, found him and advised him not to give up, but Mill seemed to have made up his mind. When they were walking and discussing, Mills' dog suddenly bit Parker, and Parker was in great pain and bleeding. However, Parker didn't mind this and joked. Mills stared at Parker for a while, as if thinking about something. Suddenly, he said, "You are very capable of dealing with blows …" Maybe Mills thought he should face setbacks and setbacks with the same optimism as Parker, but at this moment, he changed his mind. "Come and see me at nine tomorrow. We should be very busy." Mills said that in this way, he chose to persist.

Unlike the average team in front of the stadium, the establishment of Chelsea is just the opposite. Mills owns Stamford Bridge Stadium, and he decided to form a team based on it. 1905 15 On March 4th, Mills and his partners held a meeting at the Butcher's Hook Tavern opposite the Stamford Bridge Stadium and decided to set up a new football club. At first, people expressed their opinions on the name of the club, and the proposals of "Stamford Bridge Football Club", "Kensington Club" and "London Club" were all rejected. Finally, the name "Chelsea Football Club" was adopted, and a story that lasted for a hundred years began.

1905, Chelsea Football Club was founded, and john tate Robertson became the first head coach in the history of Chelsea Football Club and the main force of the team. The club also signed contracts with some famous players, and the team began to take shape. Geographically, Chelsea should have participated in the Southern League, but it was not approved. In the end, most football leagues attended by northern clubs recruited Chelsea to join. 1905 On May 29th, Chelsea joined the second league of the football league, and before that, Chelsea had never played a formal game.

Chapter 2: They are the first Chelsea people.

1On September 2nd, 905, Chelsea played the first game after the establishment of the club, and lost to Stoke Port 0-/kloc-0. However, Chelsea's subsequent development was very smooth, and after the second season, it was promoted to the top league.

In the early Chelsea team, there were some legends. The first goalkeeper in Chelsea's history was named Willier-Henry Falk, nicknamed "Fat Falk". He was born in 1874 and died in 19 16. He is 6 feet 3 inches (1.90m) tall and weighs 165438. It is said that in a game, he once broke the goalpost of a wooden goal and forced the game to stop. Falk's last club was Bradford, and his weight had risen to 165kg before he retired.

Pangzi fokker

George Hillsden, nicknamed "Gatling Machine Gun", was Chelsea's earliest center. In six seasons, he scored 107 goals and became a legend in the history of the club. The machine gun partner was Jimmy Windrich, who scored the first hat trick in Chelsea's history. Niels Middlebo is Chelsea's first foreign aid and is called "Great Dane" by fans. Besides, Vivian Woodward and Bob Widingham are both famous players.

In those years, Chelsea were relegated once, but soon returned to the top league. Before 10, Chelsea's best ranking was eighth in the top league. In World War I, Chelsea made a breakthrough in the Cup, 19 15 reached the FA Cup final, but lost 3-0 to Manchester United in the final at Old Trafford.

Chapter 3: The failed superstar strategy.

19 12 years, Chelsea founder Mills died, but the club he founded was on the right track. In 1930s, Londoners' demand for spare time increased, and more and more people began to watch football matches. 1935 A league match between Chelsea and Arsenal attracted 82,905 people at Stamford Bridge, which is still the largest audience in the English League.

In 1930s, another team in London, Arsenal, dominated the league for a while. They won the league championship four times in five years. In order to compete with each other, Chelsea began to buy stars. In the early 1930s, Chelsea bought three Scottish national team strikers, Alec Cheney, Alec Czechson and Hughie Gallagher. Among them, Gallagher was one of the best stars in football. Chelsea brought him in from Newcastle and spent a record 1 000.

However, Chelsea's early superstar strategy was not successful. There are many big names in the team, but there is no organization and discipline. Big-name players can miss training at will and just show off their skills on the court. At that time, Birmingham and Derby broke Chelsea's door six times, and Arsenal scored five goals at Stamford Bridge. The top star Gallagher scored 8 1 goal in 144 games, but he was undisciplined and grumpy, and often clashed with his teammates. Later, he left the team angrily. During this period, Chelsea didn't get any decent results and even worried about relegation.

1955 champion lineup

Chapter four: a crown in a hundred years

World War II hindered the development of football, and the Stamford Bridge Stadium was lucky to escape the German bombing. After World War II, everything was back on track. In the early 1950s, Chelsea sold tommy lawton, a top striker who had many conflicts with the club, and bought roy bentley for half of the record transfer fee, namely 1 0,000. He became one of the strikers in Chelsea history books. However, Chelsea were still fighting for relegation. 195 1, they only relegated by 0.044 points, and the team is in urgent need of reconstruction.

1952 In May, Chelsea appointed ted drake as the head coach of the team and ushered in a new era. Clark was a famous center for Arsenal when he was a player. After he took office, he began a comprehensive rectification. First of all, Drake advocated more commercial operation, promoted the new team logo, and canceled the way that the head coach sat in the office and put on sportswear to participate in team training.

1955 champion lineup

Drake took a completely different approach in bringing in players. With his own judgment, he recruited people from small and medium-sized teams at low prices. Around the existing Bentley, jon harris and others, he began to rebuild the team. McNick, stubbs, Vickers and other new players all come from lower leagues, while Saunders, Lewis and O 'Connor even come from amateur clubs.

Drake emphasizes integrity and team spirit, and he demands strict discipline and tenacious style. 1954-55 season, Chelsea created a miracle. 1954, 10 this month, they only scored two points in six consecutive games, which didn't look like a strong team at all, but later they were unstoppable and finally won the league championship this season. This is the first top league title in Chelsea history. It was not until a hundred years later that Mourinho led the team to dominate the Premier League. This trophy is the only valuable collection of the Blue Army in the past 100 years.

In the mid and late 1950s, the appearance of jimmy greaves gave Chelsea a great striker. The striker is still regarded as one of the best products in Chelsea's youth training camp. Before 2 1 year old, Greaves' score exceeded 100, 196 1. He moved to AC Milan, Italy, left 169 games for Chelsea and scored 132 goals.

After Greaves left, Chelsea fell into a trough and 1962 was relegated to the second division. Subsequently, Tommy Docherty took over as head coach, and he led the team back to the first division. During that period, Chelsea had famous players such as terry venables (who later became the British coach), peter bonetti and bobby tambling, and their performance was stable in the middle and upper reaches.

Chapter five: darkness after light

1965, Chelsea beat Leicester 3-2 in the final and won the Carling Cup, which was their earliest cup title. In the middle and late 1960s, Chelsea peter osgood was the king of Stamford Bridge.

In the 1970s, Chelsea became a powerful force in the Cup. 1970, the Blues won the first FA Cup in the club's history. They defeated Leeds United, the then English overlord, in the final and the final play-offs. In the process of winning the FA Cup, osgood scored every round. That year, Chelsea was still ranked third in the league.

Winning the FA Cup gave Chelsea a chance to play in the European Cup Winners' Cup, and they went all the way to the final. In the final against Real Madrid, Spain, Chelsea first drew the opponent, and then won 2-/Kloc-0-0 in the play-off to win the club's first European Championship.

However, the decline after the glory soon came. Chelsea rebuilt Stamford Bridge Stadium and was heavily in debt. Later, it sold its star player osgood. After winning the European Cup Winners' Cup for four years, Chelsea was relegated to the second division with a debt of 3 million pounds.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Chelsea fell to an all-time low. I changed three coaches in four years, but I was demoted soon after I was promoted to the first class and struggled in the second class for a long time. 1982, only 6009 spectators watched a London derby between Chelsea and the East. At that time, the club owed players wages, the bank refused to lend money to Chelsea, and the Blue Army was on the verge of death.

Bates

Chapter 6: Chelsea 1.

In the late 1970s, due to debt, Chelsea had to sell Stamford Bridge Stadium. The buyer intends to turn the stadium into a residential area or a supermarket and let the Blues borrow Fulham's home stadium. At this time, Chelsea is the poorest club in England, and the charities they use to raise money are even losing money.

In this context, the entry of businessman Ken Bates became a decisive turning point. If Abramovich's arrival in the summer of 2003 brought Chelsea to the highest level, then Bates saved Chelsea's life. He paid off Chelsea's debts and bought Chelsea Football Club at a nominal price of 65,438+0. After that, Bates insisted on taking back Stamford Bridge. He fought a lawsuit in 10, and took back Stamford Bridge Stadium in 1992.

Under Bates' leadership, Chelsea began a cautious management road, a large number of well-known players were fired, and head coach john neal was looking for a young replacement. During this period, Chelsea has almost fallen into the abyss of perdition and was once in danger of falling into the third class. In the key relegation battle with Bolton, Clive Walker scored a last-minute goal to win a life-saving victory, and the subsequent draw ensured Chelsea's relegation success.

Bates operated off the court, while head coach Neil performed miracles on the court. In the summer of 1983, he signed six new players at a very low transfer fee and began to rebuild the team. In that season, Chelsea won the second division championship and returned to the first division. Later, Chelsea went through another relegation. In the 1990s, the Blues maintained the image of a middle and lower reaches team in the First Division.

1993, glenn hoddle became the head coach of Chelsea. At this time, Bates has pulled the club out of the quagmire of poverty, and the team began to spend more than one million pounds to buy players. Among the players introduced by hoddle, ruud gullit, the leader of the famous Dutch Three Musketeers, took over as the England coach at 1996.

Starting from hoddle, under the development of Gullit, Chelsea began an era of introducing foreign big names. Using his relationship in Europe, Gullit bought Viali, dimatteo, leboeuf and other foreign aid for Chelsea. After that, Zola came. The little Italian was later named the best player in Chelsea's history by Blues fans.

It is the joining of many big-name players that has enhanced Chelsea's popularity and improved the team's performance. The FA Cup, the European Cup Winners Cup and the European Super Cup came one after another, and Chelsea began to become an important force in England. After Gullit, Viali became the head coach, and the internationalization of the blue team has been advancing. During this period, they entered the Champions League for the first time, and Bates' painstaking efforts finally made Chelsea return to the ranks of strong teams.

Chapter 7: Champions in the 1990s.

At the beginning of this period, the club has funds to invest in the transfer market again. For the first time, we bought midfielders Andy Townsend and dennis wise with a transfer fee of 6,543,800 yuan, but the team's performance in the next few seasons was average. Chelsea have been wandering in the middle reaches, and in the cup we are good at, we are often eliminated by lower-level league teams early. This is really an embarrassing record-12 years, 13 times became the victim of the "giant killer".

Campbell and his successor Ivan porterfield didn't stay in the coaching position for a long time because of the team's lack of excellent record.

From 65438 to 0993, glenn hoddle was appointed as the new head coach. Chelsea's finances have improved and the team's record has improved. Although the progress was slow at first, the team reached the FA Cup final in its first season in hoddle, which gave great encouragement to the club.

It was Manchester United waiting for us at Wembley, and it was too early for us to challenge this strong team. Chelsea were beaten 4-0 after a good start. This score is really too much.

The following year, Chelsea took a step forward under the leadership of hoddle. He successfully brought this limited team into the semi-finals of the European Cup Winners Cup, but his greatest contribution came the following summer.

With the smooth settlement of the Stamford Bridge issue, the club also provided additional transfer funds. Chelsea need to bring in a world-class star to stimulate the market. hoddle has successfully persuaded the legendary Dutch star Luther gullit to come to West London from Italy.

Another big move is that we bought striker mark hughes from Manchester United. Not long after we bought the Romanian national team right-back dan petrescu, the technical football focusing on passing and cutting returned to our eyes.

In just one season, gullit conquered all the fans and was called the best player in the history of Chelsea Football Club. When hoddle became the head coach of the English national team in the summer of 1996, no one was more suitable as the new head coach of the team than former world footballer Gullit.

Using his years of experience and relationships in Europe, Gullit bought the famous Italian striker Gianluca Viali, followed by Viali's teammate in the Italian national team, midfielder Roberto Di Matteo and French scavenger Franck Leboeuf. A few months later, another Serie A superstar Gianfranco Zola also came to Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea reached the FA Cup final again with exciting skills, and this time Chelsea is ready.

Dimatteo set the Wembley Cup final record in just 43 seconds, helping the team take the lead. Eddie newton, a member of the Academy, scored a goal in the second half to seal the score at 2-0, and we beat Middlesbrough. The 26-year-long FA Cup championship has finally come to an end, and the longest celebration in history will be held in this ancient stadium.

This is also our gift to Matthew Haddling, a lifelong Chelsea fan and a young millionaire. He used to be the vice president of Chelsea. He died in a helicopter accident after watching a game a few months ago. His portrait will always stand in the north of Stamford Bridge Stadium, where there is a stand where he invested heavily and is now named after him.

That summer, the team lineup was strengthened again, because Chelsea made good use of the "bosman Rule" to attract players to join in the transfer market. Gullit's eye for talents can be compared with any coach in Chelsea's history. He signed exciting midfielder gustav poyet and young Norwegian striker Torre Andre ·flo for free and didn't spend a penny on the transfer fee.

Then there's Celestine babayaro, English left-back Galamez Le Saux, who made his Chelsea debut and is now back at the club, and goalkeeper Ed de Hu Ye. These five players all played an important role in the following season.

Next season is also historic, although gullit didn't stay. 1998 At the beginning of this year, Gullit's new contract negotiations with Chelsea Football Club broke down and he brought Viali to take over.

Only three months after taking office, Viali led his team to win two championships. Another 2-0 victory over Middlesbrough was in the Coca-Cola Cup, and the goals were scored by another young player, Frank Sinclair and dimatteo.

Then in Stockholm, more than 20,000 Chelsea fans witnessed Zola scoring the only goal against Stuttgart after coming off the bench, helping the team win the European Cup Winners' Cup for the second time.

That summer, Franck Leboeuf won the World Cup with the French national team. His central defender partner marcel dessailly also joined Chelsea a few weeks before the World Cup. The image of the club rose with the stage of the World Cup.

Like 197 1, we beat the mighty Real Madrid in Monaco and won the European Super Cup, and Poyet scored the winning goal.

That season was also the first time that we became the real challengers for the top league title in England after the 1960s. Chelsea finished third, four points behind champions Manchester United. We only lost three games all season. De Hu Ye has set a new record of not losing in a single season in the history of the club.

In 2000 ad

1third place in the 999/2000 season also made Chelsea reach the Champions League for the first time. We achieved good results and became the first English club to reach the quarter-finals of the Europa League for the first time.

Dennis wise equalised AC Milan's famous goal at the San Siro Stadium; In Turkey, Galatasaray was beaten 5-0, which silenced the fanatical fans. The 3-/kloc-0-victory over the giants Barcelona at Stamford Bridge was a classic moment in the Europa League.

The Spanish giants still beat us in the terrible Nou Camp, but that season we reached the last FA Cup final at Wembley as a consolation. It was Villa's turn to fall victim to the "dimatteo Wembley scoring rules"-Chelsea 1-0 won.

Twenty years after the club's economic crisis, Chelsea bought the goal machine jimmy floyd hasselbaink for a transfer fee of150,000, equalling the British record. He scored his first goal on his debut at Chelsea and helped us win the Charity Shield, the sixth trophy we won in the past three years.

Here's to Chelsea, our great captain, dennis wise, who was born in west London, as a reward for his 1 1 year for playing for Chelsea and his outstanding contribution to uniting this star-studded team into a whole.

However, there are also problems under the surface prosperity. Viali is in conflict with his expanding player lineup, and some players he insists on buying are not playing their due role. The team lineup began to age, and the need for reconstruction became increasingly urgent. The club decided to find another suitable coach to deal with this problem.

Abu and his beloved wife

Chapter 8: Two head coaches and a new boss in the new century.

Claudio ranieri, an Italian coach who led Florence and Valencia in his native Italy, was selected by Chelsea Football Club. In the first season, he successfully led Chelsea to qualify for the European War next year for five consecutive seasons.

Hasselbaink won the Golden Boot Award in the Premier League with 23 league goals. His name, together with his predecessors Hillsden, Bentley, Greaves, osgood and Dixon, became the object of fans' talk about the great center in Chelsea history.

Ranieri began to make some moves in the transfer market, driving away veterans such as Wise, Poyet and Lbov. A total of * * * 42 million pounds was spent to buy defender William Gallas, midfielders Frank Lampard, emmanuel petit and Slavisa Jokanovic, as well as wingers Jasper Glenshire and Bodwin Zenden.

The reconstruction of the west stand of Stamford Bridge was completed before the start of the 200 1/2002 season, and it was also to prepare for the FA Cup 1/4 final this season, when Chelsea played Tottenham Hotspur at home.

This game is not just a simple London derby. In the past 12, Chelsea maintained an incredible unbeaten advantage over its rivals in the same city. During that time, Chelsea didn't lose a game.

However, in the semi-final of the Carling Cup in June 5438+ 10, 2002, Tottenham broke the record and won a big victory-beating Chelsea 5- 1 at home. After waiting for the FA Cup for six weeks, Chelsea drew 4-0 with Tottenham Hotspur with a strong feeling of revenge. Since then, Chelsea eliminated Fulham in the semi-final, but in the final of Cardiff Millennium Stadium, Chelsea was defeated by Arsenal 2-0 for the third consecutive London derby and lost the championship.

The record of reaching the FA Cup final and ranking sixth in the league barely passed, but due to a series of expenses such as rebuilding the team, expanding Stamford Bridge and building luxury hotels, the debt of Chelsea Club began to increase.

It is very important to beat Liverpool in the last round of the 2002/2003 season, which ensures that Chelsea can enter the Champions League next year, and it also means that Chelsea can earn a lot of money. However, the heavy debt burden still makes the club need new investment to tide over the difficulties. On July 2nd, 2003, roman abramovich bought the heavily indebted Chelsea Football Club.

At that time, 36-year-old Russian billionaire Abramovich was a mystery to England.

When the news of Chelsea's sale came out, the future of the club was not clear at first. Will the new club provide a lot of transfer funds to buy new players? Will the coach change? Will Gianfranco Zola stay at the club?

The club has offered a generous contract to the veteran who is about to turn 37. Everything has changed now, but Zola also told the club that he would return to Sardinia to play for his hometown team Cagliari. In the most important weeks of Chelsea, the most popular player among fans is likely to bid farewell to the club and the blue shirt.

Before long, Chelsea's development intention under Abramovich's command became very obvious. The cost for Chelsea to buy players before the season is unimaginable for any club before.

Glen johnson, Winnie Bridge and joe cole, young and talented English players, have all been bought by Chelsea. Chelsea also found a Premier League club and bought Geremi and juan sebastian veron. Damien duff170,000 pounds set a new record for the club.

Serie A has become another market for Chelsea. We bought two top strikers, adrian mutu and Hernan Crespo, and the last star to come to Stamford Bridge was claude makelele. Real Madrid sold the midfielder who won the Champions League trophy with his team.

Chelsea's investment in the transfer market exceeded 654.38 billion pounds, while on the sidelines, Abramovich successfully privatized Chelsea Football Club completely.

Chelsea in the new era soon left a deep impression on people. Beat Liverpool at Anfield for the first time since the start of the Premier League 1 1 season.

In June 2003, Chelsea won two important victories. Chelsea beat Lazio 4-0 in Rome, setting a new record for foreign teams to win by the largest score in Italy. In the Premier League, Chelsea beat defending champion Manchester United and topped the Premier League standings.

After Christmas, Chelsea lost to Arsenal and took the top spot in the Premier League, but in the Champions League quarter-final, Chelsea beat Arsenal at Highbury, which was the first victory of the past 17 dialogue between the two teams.

It is hard to imagine that Monaco, coached by former Chelsea player didier deschamps, will be our opponent in the final. But after two thrilling and dramatic battles, this team from the Mediterranean Principality won and advanced. Returning to England and winning the runner-up in the Premier League is also the second best result in Chelsea's history.

Under Ranieri's leadership, Chelsea's lineup has undergone great changes and created a young lineup. However, in the context of not winning any trophies for four seasons, the boss decided to find a head coach who can lead this Qixin team to win the highest honor in football.

In just two seasons, Mourinho led Porto to win the UEFA Cup and the Champions League in succession, and also won the Portuguese Super League and the Cup in Portugal for two consecutive seasons.

With the support of the club's financial resources, the 4 1 year-old coach began to build his strongest team and instilled his teaching beliefs in this team. Portuguese internationals Paulo Ferreira, Ricardo Carvalho and Tiago all followed Mourinho to London. Two of Europe's most promising newcomers, Petr Cech and Arjen Robben, also came to Stamford Bridge, and Didier Drogba increased the club's investment in the transfer market to a record 200 million pounds. Matga Kezman is the second new striker.

The first thing Mourinho did when he took office was to hand over the captain's armband to john terry, the best player in Chelsea's youth training products in the past 20 years.

Chelsea started their Premier League journey by beating Manchester United in the first round. By 1 1 month, they topped the list again, and this time they were never surpassed by other rivals.

Chelsea won the league title with the highest score and the least number of goals conceded in the history of English top leagues. Terry became the first Chelsea player to compete for the Premier League Player of the Year in the history of the Premier League. His teammate Lampard scored 19 goals in various competitions that season and became the English Footballer of the Year.

Chelsea missed the Champions League final again (losing to Liverpool in the semi-final), but they got revenge by beating Anfield in the Carling Cup and ensured that 2004/2005 was the most successful season in the club's history.

This is really the perfect way to celebrate Chelsea's first centenary celebration!

Honor: ☆ Blue Army Historical Honor ☆

Chelsea regained the league title in 2005.

Premier League champion: 2 times (2004/05, 2005/06)

League One champion: 1 time (1954/55 former top league)

FA Cup champion: 4 times (1970, 1997, 2000, 2007)

English League Cup champion: 4 times (1965, 1998, 2005, 2007)

British community shield champion: 3 times (1955, 2000, 2005)

European Cup Winners' Cup champion: 2 times (1970/7 1, 1997/98)

European Super Cup champion: 1 time (1998)

other

Second division champion (second division): 2 times (1983/84, 1988/89)

FA Member Cup Champion: 2 times (1986, 1990)

Youth FA Cup (1960, 196 1)