History

Description

Chelsea Football Club, a favorite club in several nations reached its 100 years anniversary in the year 2005. The club came into being in the year 1905. The Champions celebrated the centenary year in a remarkable way. The year 1955 was also a memorable one with the club celebrating their golden jubilee as well as winning their first League amongst several other tough rivals. The team also won silverware in the 1960’s, 1970’s and 1990’s which proves that the team has always been consistent achievers.

In 1944, Chelsea played their first final at the Football League South Cup. However, they lost the match to Charlton. This defeat motivated them to perform much better and they emerged as the winners against Millwall in the Football League South Cup Finals held in 1945. In the preceding sessions it was noticed that there were certain disagreements evolving about the roles played by the team members in the club. These differences led to the removal of Tommy Lawton, who played center-forward for the team. However, he was replaced by Roy Bentley who played full 8 seasons and became the key player for the team.

The team won the FA Cup in the year 1950. By then, they had a new manager called Ted Drake. Drake proved to be a very important manager as he motivated and reformed the team which included key players like Bentley, Ken Armb, John Harris, Stan Willemse and Eric Parsons. The players worked in full force and the club members and supporters were quite desperate to win silverware. The Championship was won on the second-to-last day of the season on the home grounds of Chelsea against Sheffield on St. George’s Day in 1955.

The 1960s saw the team perform well under the guidance of Tommy Docherty. They participated in the League Cup and FA Cup. During the three seasons that they played, the side was beaten in three important semi-final matches. In 1965 the club was on the verge of winning the Treble. There were some good sessions and some lax ones in the years to come. However, the team did manage to survive a lot of them. The 1970s and 1980s was a chaotic period for the Chelsea team. The financial stability of the club was under threat due to which the players were loaned to other clubs and finally the team was relegated.

In 1993, Glen Hoddle was appointed as the manager. Though initially he showed slow progress, the team went on to win the FA Cup in the first season under his guidance. Later, Ruud Gullit was appointed as the player-manager in 1996. Under his stewardship, the club earned the reputation of being one of England’s top sides and won the FA Cup in 1997. Gianluca Vialli took over as the team manager during 1998. In 1998, the club also won the Cup Winners’ Cup and League Cup.

This was followed by an FA Cup victory in 2000 and the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals in 2000. In 2005, Chelsea was the League Cup winner and had also managed to reach the Champions League semi-finals. Chelsea emerged as the League Cup winners for the second time in 2007 and had also displayed good performances in the Premier League.