What the feck was Duncan Ferguson doing being the highest paid player in the league? He was a rubbish 10 goal striker who scored like 100 goals in his entire Everton career. He’s a massive character, and a ‘hard man’, but hardly a top player like Keane and Shearer.
Chelsea before the money...
- Thread starter Rozay
- Start date
If memory serves me correctly Chelsea went in to the final 2 matches of the 1998/99 season (yes, the treble year) and could have potentially won the league if results had gone their way.
Yes they were overstretching themselves compared to the results they were getting.
Highest wage bill in the country in 00/01 and a 6th place finish to show for it. 4th highest wages the following season and another 6th place.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/f...pending-from-the-200001-season-to-201112.html
Not read every post so apologies if already mentioned but Ken Bates, (Roman’s predecessor) in his desperate drive to make them relevant, overspent and nearly put the club into liquidation. Such were their debt levels, the club was worthless and was heading into insolvency until a dodgy Russian saw an opportunity to reinvent himself, came along and took on the debt. Paid a quid for the club and the rest is history. They really deserved the same fate as Leeds, which, oddly enough, is whom old Kenny Bates inflicted himself upon next. Then he died.
Shout-out to Mario Melchiot and Desailly
The latter in particular, I remember applauding after Morientes or another player got sent off in the semifinals that Monaco went on to win
The latter in particular, I remember applauding after Morientes or another player got sent off in the semifinals that Monaco went on to win
Might be wrong but thought that was Arsenal?
Yeah, it is true. They only finished 4 points behind Man Utd, 3 points behind Arsenal. Thus, mathematically, they still got a chance up until match day 37 and if both Man Utd and Arsenal slipped and they won, they could have overtaken then. It was a big IF though.
Last edited:
Their player recruitment was like 00s Bolton. Had plenty of great players who were past their prime.
It's true of both:
Of course, looking at that a Chelsea title win was very unlikely. Still possible though.
Chelsea played their 37th game first on 10th May and drew 2-2 at Spurs That meant just one of United or Arsenal getting a point in our last two matches would absolutely rule Chelsea out mathematically. With Chelsea's inferior goal difference on top of that winning at this point would have been an absolute miracle but they were tachnically still in it even now:
Arsenal played the next night and lost 1-0 at Leeds so Chelsea still not completely out of it:
United draw 0-0 away at Blackburn on the 12th to finally finish Chelsea off. That match finishes Blackburn off too and confirms their relegation with Brian Kidd at the helm. Random memory of Fergie seemingly not realiising it put Blackburn down in a post-match interview:
All 3 win on the final day:
Shockingly, he's still alive
The first bit is the most relevant.
They were an average mid table club before the money came along. Everton, if they were lucky. Ken Bates spent a fortune on a few decent players to temporarily bump them up to the occasional European showing, but it backfired and almost collapsed the club. Had Roman not bought them theres a good chance they wouldn't exist today.
They weren't that bad, Zola, Gudjohnsen, Hasselbaink, Lampard, Terry, Deseilly, Gallas, Cudinini etc were all there. Solid side that finished between 3rd-6th every season. They were never winning the league, but they were a good side. People overstate how "bad" they were retrospectively, they were certainly no City.
Sort of, although they actually won the odd FA/League Cup
they were actually a bit of a yo-yo club, more akin to Sunderland or City and spent time in Div 2 Before Bates got big ideas.
Gavin Peacock was their standard.
always put me in mind of one of those guys who buys an old banger and puts flashy wheel rims and spoilers on it
I think, around the time that we drew with Blackburn and Arsenal lost to Leeds that they looked like potential dark horses to sneak it. They were a good side that year, took a replay to get past them in the FA Cup (though we had a perfectly good goal chalked off for offside).
Beating Leeds at Manchester United’s home in the 1970 FA Cup final replay established them as hard to hate in my impressionable young mind. That Sexton side was a good one, though the club was shockingly run and some players were allowed to believe they were bigger than the manager.
In the 70s and 80s Stamford Bridge looked more like an agricultural showground in a quiet country town than a major metropolitan football stadium. Parked cars at the edge of the pitch...
The fans are a funny lot. All the individual ones I’ve known over the decades have been lovely people, and among the most objective and knowledgeable. There’s no doubt that their minority of cnuts is larger and more cnutish than most though; the District Line when they are at home is a deeply unpleasant place to be.
John Terry was already in talks to sign with us because they were broke. Then they secured CL qualification ahead of Liverpool on the last day and Abramovich went in and everything changed.
Things could have looked very different if they hadn't won their last game that season.
Was a bit weird early on seeing a player like gullit playing it out from the back surrounded by absolute plonkers whose only instinct on the ball was to boot it. It was ridiculous how much better he was than any of his team mates.
Wrong on a lot of levels.
He was better than pretty much everyone from what I remember. Although it felt strange at the time people telling me he used to be a top forward. I saw him in midfield for Chelsea and he was brilliant.
In the 10 years before Abramovich they won a league cup, 2 FA Cups, a cup winners cup and qualified for the CL with a decent squad and plenty of fancy foreign names. They were hardly a nothing Division 2 side like City pre money.
One Chelsea player I would have loved to see at United was Desailly ..... I think with him in our side we could have won another couple of Champions League.
I know they were a decent side. I was just wondering why they were such a decent side.I remember us being the best and biggest, but our official line was that we couldn’t attract top foreign players. In fact, the league as a whole in the 90s was a bit skint in comparison, and foreign stars typically didn’t come to England. On reflection, I can’t work out Desailly at his prime was playing for them for example. He was a player who would be playing for the very top teams in Europe now, at the same stage of his career, yet he basically signed for Everton or Wolves.
Chelsea were similar case to Portsmouth, overspent. By the time Roman Abramovich took over, they were 100 million in debt and were going to default on their loans. Had Roman not come in and saved the club, they would have gone down to the Championship and we would see them in the way of Leeds United.
At that time in 1996, when Chelsea started signing star players. Everton had won the FA Cup and Charity shield a year before, and were league champions nine years earlier in 1987 for the second time in three seasons. The status of both clubs were on two ends of the scale. Chelsea having won 1 league title and only recently coming up from Division Two, compared to Everton's nine league titles (Man (Utd were on 9 league titles back then too)Rozay said:
Ironically, the rise of Chelsea coincided with the dramatic fall of Everton. Both started to overspend at the same time too, the difference is that Everton got Bill Kenwright who was skint and had a 20m debt and Chelsea had a 100m debt and got a billionaire in Roman Abramovich.
Now we talk of Chelsea as one of the big clubs, and people comparing Everton to Wolves.
They are two examples of how money changes football.
No relevance, but my first FIFA game, think it was 96? or something. I played as Chelsea for some reason instead of Utd.
I set the time to 45 minutes each half, little did I know it was actually 45 minutes real time, per half. On FIFA.
Think I scored about 98 goals with Zola in that match.
I set the time to 45 minutes each half, little did I know it was actually 45 minutes real time, per half. On FIFA.
Think I scored about 98 goals with Zola in that match.
Best post in this thread.
Are you still trying to complete the season?
Chelsea before the money - 1 league title in 100 years. They're no better than City.
After our first game of the season when you beat us 4-0 I was asked by my Mum if Chelsea were poor. I said yes, before 2003.
that was only because they spent a ton of money that they didn’t have and it put them right in the shit. They got dead lucky when the Russian crook came along to rescue them. If they’ve been properly managed, they wouldn’t have splashed the cash on all those players and finished lower in the table and won feck all. All a silly gamble from Bates but they got lucky.
oddly enough, I always quite liked Chelsea, going back to Tommy Docs time there. Always had flamboyant players. Osgood, Cooke, Tambling, Venables and McCreadie was a cracking left back. Bonetti in goals, then for a few years, early 70s, a half decent side under Sexton.
DeSailly... seem recall posters on here mentioned 1) United's rigid wage structure then, and 2) the player favored London life and school system for the kids. No clue how spot on that may be but he supposedly nearly signed in 96 only for Milan to offer more money, something like that.
Point one is interesting. I mean, if even pre-Roman, we couldn’t compete with Chelsea on wages. In that era, we were always seen as the big spenders who has all the money before Roman came to ‘allow others to climb the ladder’.
I've read that post a few times, and other than Ken Bates being very much still alive, i can't find a single thing wrong with it.
It's odd how Matthew Harding is the forgotten man of Chelsea. He came along and almost overnight pumped a fortune into them. Before the Russian money there was Harding money. If he hadn't died Roman would probably have bought Arsenal.
At least his Stand still remains despite Ken Bates efforts to scrub his name from the club. He hated Harding and his money even though it was him who put out the appeal for investment.
At least his Stand still remains despite Ken Bates efforts to scrub his name from the club. He hated Harding and his money even though it was him who put out the appeal for investment.
My absolute favourite time watching football and supporting Chelsea (maybe because I was a kid at the time).
If my memory serves my right it was a huge coup when we signed Ruud Gullet. It kind of came out of nowhere and it was big news at the time. I remember my dad excitedly telling me how lucky we were to have such a great footballer playing just down the road from us at our local team (I had gone to my first match the season before).
Then after Gullet became manager he used his name and contacts to bring in players from Italy such as Vialli, Zola, Di Matteo. As others have said I think the appeal of living in Chelsea was a big draw (still is obviously), but also Gullet himself. He was still a huge name at the time and promoting the idea that Chelsea were playing a more sophisticated continental style of football than other English teams at the time. He famously said he wanted his Chelsea side to play "sexy football" when he took over. At the time a lot of other teams were also bringing older talent from Seria A, presumably attracted by big wages – it was a really exciting time to be a football fan in England.
I'd say we were arguably best of the rest behind Manchester United and Arsenal for a long time. As others have also noted we challenged for the league in 1998/99 right down the wire against two of the best PL teams of all time. We were actually top of the league for a large part of that season I'm sure. We also went deep in the Champions League a few times as well before Abramovich took over too.
If my memory serves my right it was a huge coup when we signed Ruud Gullet. It kind of came out of nowhere and it was big news at the time. I remember my dad excitedly telling me how lucky we were to have such a great footballer playing just down the road from us at our local team (I had gone to my first match the season before).
Then after Gullet became manager he used his name and contacts to bring in players from Italy such as Vialli, Zola, Di Matteo. As others have said I think the appeal of living in Chelsea was a big draw (still is obviously), but also Gullet himself. He was still a huge name at the time and promoting the idea that Chelsea were playing a more sophisticated continental style of football than other English teams at the time. He famously said he wanted his Chelsea side to play "sexy football" when he took over. At the time a lot of other teams were also bringing older talent from Seria A, presumably attracted by big wages – it was a really exciting time to be a football fan in England.
I'd say we were arguably best of the rest behind Manchester United and Arsenal for a long time. As others have also noted we challenged for the league in 1998/99 right down the wire against two of the best PL teams of all time. We were actually top of the league for a large part of that season I'm sure. We also went deep in the Champions League a few times as well before Abramovich took over too.
He was yet another PL owner who died in a helicopter accident if I recall correctly?
Yes was shocking at the time. He was all over the news and made a big impact on footy. I was at Lloyds at he time and he was a syndicate owner so knew all about him.
Who was going to say no to him?
Gavin God botherer Peacock?