At last “we” had got revenge on the Germans for burying my granddad under a pile of rubble when his house, perilously situated close to a military airfield, was bombed by the Luftwaffe. (Just to put your minds at rest he emerged from underneath the rubble four hours later with just a cut on his leg.)

A week after the final, The Times of Malta published a supplement with a few articles and photos of the World Cup. The supplement included all the results and scorers of the matches. I got hooked. While my parents took their siesta away from the hot Maltese sun, I used to sit quietly on our balcony, memorizing every single stat in the Times supplement. Nearly 43 years later I can still tell you confidently that that the Germans beat Switzerland 5-1 in a Group 2 match and Held, Haller (2), Beckenbauer and Seeler scored the German goals. Pak Doo Ik scored for North Korea in their 1 – 0 win against Italy in the shock result of the competition.

This infatuation led me to start poring over the results in The Sunday Times of Malta when the new football season started a few weeks later. The headline “Osgood is Good” caught my eye one day. As a seven year old it didn’t seem corny. A quick glance at the league table showed that this team called Chelsea was top of the table, and a love affair with Chelsea started that day, sometime in September 1966.

I loved the team, but my true love was Ossie. The history books show that he broke his leg soon after and didn’t pull on the blue shirt till nearly a year later, missing out on the 1967 FA Cup Final.

I spent my meagre pocket money at the stationer’s, buying up every magazine that included even just a couple of lines about my hero. Ossie came back from his injury with a bang. The goals flowed, and he regularly headed the Chelsea scoring charts. In 1970 he was top scorer in the First Division as Chelsea won their first ever FA Cup.

Ossie was a player the likes of whom English football had never seen and probably will never see again. He was built like a typical English centre forward of the time, big, 6 foot 3 inches tall, and strong, but he had the skills of a small nimble striker. Think of a cross between Emile Heskey and Wayne Rooney’s best attributes and you can start getting a picture of what he was like.

Ossie was a man for the big occasion. Three times Chelsea made it to the final and three times Ossie got on the scoresheet. In the 1970 FA Cup winning run he scored in every round, a feat still unmatched to this very day.

Ossie’s bad boy image cost him a regular place in the England team then managed by Sir Alf Ramsey. His 103 goals in 279 matches for Chelsea definitely deserved more than his meagre 4 England caps. Ramsey selected him for the England squad for the 1970 World Cup, in which England were defending champions and amongst the favourites. In his autobiography Ossie relates that for the tournament he was rooming with the great Bobby Moore. Ramsey confided in Moore that he was going to pick Osgood for the second group game against Brazil after a rather tepid team performance in the opening match against Romania, in which Osgood had come on as substitute. Moore passed on the good news to his room mate. A couple of hours before the match Ramsey named his team. Osgood wasn’t in it and promptly stormed out of the dressing room. He didn’t win a cap again until Ramsey was close to the end of his tenure in November 1973 in a friendly against Italy. (England lost 1-0 at Wembley that night to a goal by the present England manager Fabio Capello).

After the success in the early seventies, in 1974, true to form, Ossie and his mate Alan Hudson fell out with the Chelsea manager Dave Sexton. Sexton gave the board an ultimatum – either me or them, and the board backed the manager. Ossie was sold to Southampton. While he went on to win the FA Cup with his new team, Chelsea went on a slide that was to last a decade. He came back three years later and played a further ten games scoring two goals. But the old magic had died. The legs were giving way after years of playing on potato fields that passed for playing surfaces in the seventies, and being hacked by cumbersome defenders who found that kicking Ossie was the only way to stop him.

I could write a book of my Ossie memories but one game sticks in mind. Chelsea were 2-0 down from the first leg of the quarter finals of the 1970/71 Cup Winners Cup. Ossie was handed an 8 week ban by the FA, which, as luck would have it, ran out 2 days before the return leg at the Bridge. (Bans in those days went by weeks not games and included European games.) Sexton had told Osgood he was not in the team, telling him he did not think he was match fit. Ossie threw a tantrum and Sexton relented. Chelsea were 1-0 up and out of the competition with five minutes of normal time remaining. Ossie scored the equalizer. He and Tommy Baldwin scored two more in extra time and Chelsea were safely through to the semis. They beat Man City in the semis and the great Real Madrid in the final after a replay. Ossie scored in the original final (1-1) and in the replay (2-1) two days later.

I met Ossie a few times, long after he retired, in the Chelsea Village Hotel where I was staying. Even aged 40, I found myself behaving like a ten year old in his presence. But after a few minutes you felt like you were talking to a long lost friend. He had all the time in the world for all the fans who queued up to have their picture taken with him, many of them dads like me with kids born after Ossie had long retired.

March 1^st 2006. Ossie passed away. I cried when I heard the news on Sky Sports. My friend had died. I went out and bought myself a plane ticket and paid through the nose for a ticket to the Spurs home match for what turned out to be his final farewell. But if ever I spent 300 quid well, that was the day.

We have had many great players playing for us since Ossie retired in 1977. Zola, Vialli, Dennis Wise, Desailly, Kerry Dixon, Gullit, Lamps, JT. But there was only one king as far as I am concerned. Peter Osgood (1947 – 2006)

Later that season we went to another game and, again, Smethurst was deputising for Osgood, who was injured. So, it wasn’t until my third visit to the Bridge, against Southampton in October 1971, that I got to see Ossie play. Although he didn’t get on the scoresheet in a 3-0 win, Osgood was hugely impressive: strong, commanding in the air but light on his feet, he was very much the focal point of the Blues’ attack, playing clever little one-twos around the edge of the box with the likes of Tommy Baldwin and Alan Hudson, and generally suggesting he might score or set up a goal every time he got the ball. The crowd seemed to sense this too, so whenever Ossie was in possession a murmur of anticipation would spread through the rows of seats around us. What a contrast with the hapless Smethurst, whose often unsuccessful efforts to control the ball merely elicited groans and sighs

A couple of months later I saw my first Osgood goal – two, in fact, in a 4-0 stuffing of Everton, league champions just a couple of years earlier. The whole team was brilliant that afternoon, Hudson, Cooke and John Hollins running the show in midfield, with Ossie finishing off their slick approach work in clinical style.

He was in a rich vein of form in that 1971/72 season, scoring 31 goals – the same number he managed in our FA Cup-winning campaign in 1970. Amazingly, though, he wasn’t even in the England squad, let alone the team. It didn’t make sense.

Some of the goals Ossie scored for Chelsea were not just international class, they were world class. One I saw at the Bridge against Derby, then reigning league champions, stands out. With just a few minutes left we were trailing 1-0 when Osgood received the ball on the edge of the area with his back to goal. Up against the England defensive duo of Roy McFarland and Colin Todd he hadn’t had the best of days up to that point, and there had been a few grumbles from the crowd about his apparent lack of effort. The whingers and whiners were soon singing a different tune, though, as Ossie sent his marker running off towards the corner flag with a couple of outrageous feints before sharply spinning round to send a low left-shot into the far corner. It was a superb goal, and one that made the shortlist for the ‘Goal of the Season’ on ITV’s The Big Match. In the same season he won Match of the Day’s rather more prestigious award with a stunning left-foot volley against Arsenal in the FA Cup – a strike that is quite often replayed on the big screen at the Bridge before home games.

Goals like these led to a media campaign for Osgood to be recalled to the England team and Sir Alf Ramsey finally saw the light in late 1973, picking the Chelsea striker for the friendly against Italy at Wembley. A neighbour had some spare tickets for the match and invited me and my father along, but it wasn’t a particularly memorable game. England played poorly and Ossie, although producing some stylish touches, didn’t get much of a look in against the massed Italian defence. He never played for his country again and, much worse, soon afterwards left Chelsea for Southampton after falling out with Blues boss Dave Sexton.

Of course, he did return to the Bridge halfway through the miserable 1978/79 season. By then, however, he was some way past his best and it showed, although his technique and ball control were still as faultless as ever. It didn’t help, either, that he was playing in a weak and demoralised team heading inevitably for relegation.

Many years later, I got to meet Peter when I interviewed him for my book, Kings of the King’s Road. It’s often said that you shouldn’t meet your childhood heroes as they invariably fail to match your, perhaps unrealistic, expectations. Well, that certainly wasn’t the case with Ossie. Not only was he an excellent interviewee, answering all my questions honestly and entertainingly, but he was also very generous and considerate, collecting me in his car from the train station and driving me to his golf club where he insisted on paying for our drinks while we chatted about his Chelsea career.

A wonderful performer on the pitch and a great bloke off it, Ossie really was ‘The King of Stamford Bridge’.

Clive Batty’s latest book is The Pocket Book of Chelsea (see http://www.visionsp.co.uk/)

I don’t hold many memories from my childhood, but the mention of Ossie’s name sets the windmills of my mind in motion as with lachrymose fondness I recall a bygone era. The bell ringing at the end of another school day signalled freedom for my classmates and me. We’d waste no more of our precious time on reading, writing and arithmetic, heading down instead to the grassy wreck by the community centre, throwing our jumpers down for goalposts, each of us ready, willing and able to emulate our heroes.

There was only one person I wanted to be, Peter Osgood. Several enjoyable hours would pass before the gathering gloom of dusk and our overprotective mothers shrieking out our names put an end to proceedings. With grazed shins, grubby hands and a grimy, shiny, happy face I’d make my way home for tea.

Beans on toast, a glass of milk and a plea to my mother that Santa might bring me a royal blue shirt with a white number 9 stitched on the back. Santa didn’t let me down. The shirt was all I needed. Now I really was Peter Osgood. I even perfected his distinct goal celebration, that straddling jump accompanied by a low-slung single punch in the air. Happy days!

As a Chelsea player, Ossie was quite simply the man. He made 380 appearances for the Blues- scoring 150 goals, as well as collecting winners medals in the 1970 FA Cup and 1971 European Cup Winners’ Cup finals. Peter Osgood signed amateur forms for Chelsea in 1964 at the age of 17 before agreeing to a professional contract. He scored twice on his debut against Workington in a fifth-round League Cup tie replay.

Injury deprived Ossie of the opportunity to play in Chelsea’s run to the 1967 FA Cup Final, but he made up for this disappointment three seasons later by scoring in every round of the 1970 competition, including that fabulous diving header in the replay of the final that the Blues won 2-1 at the expense of once mighty Leeds United.

The best goal Peter Osgood ever scored for Chelsea? Take your pick. For me, that sublime volley from just outside the box against Arsenal in an FA Cup quarterfinal tie, which found the back of the net in front of the adoring Shed faithful and earned him BBC’s ‘goal of the season’ for 1972-73 was Ossie at his flamboyant best.

Despite his goal-scoring prowess at club level, Ossie was regularly overlooked when it came to representing England on the international stage; rumour has it that Alf Ramsey disapproved of his playboy lifestyle. More fool Alf, we all knew that Osgood was good.

After a series of disagreements with Chelsea manager Dave Sexton, Ossie, then aged 27, was placed on the transfer list and subsequently sold to Southampton in March 1974 for what was then a club record £275,000. I was gutted. To make matters worse, Chelsea then entered a period of decline that almost resulted in the club going to the wall.

Meanwhile, having won the FA Cup again, this time with the Saints, Ossie had then decided to try his luck in North America with Philadelphia Fury. It wasn’t for him, and when the prodigal son returned to Stamford Bridge during the 1978-79 season to fight the good fight for the Blues, Chelsea were almost a lost cause.

Again, he scored on his debut, but times had changed, the match against Middlesboro ended in a 7-2 defeat. Despite the odd flash of brilliance, it was evident that Ossie’s best days were behind him. Chelsea were relegated, and he played just one game in the Second Division for the Blues before deciding to hang his boots up for good in December 1979.

In retirement he was a man’s man. Always modest in the company of old-school fans, Ossie was fully aware of his mesmerizing legacy without ever once being boastful. He knew the score, but was still often humbled by the reverential respect he commanded, particularly on the occasions he attended our social club to talk about his life and love of the Blues. For every story he told, he’d get one back like mine from someone just like me. Never once did he tire of it.

Wrapped in a vast stillness and silence, Stamford Bridge, swathed in an eerie ethereal glow of security lights, was a strange place to be the night that Ossie passed away. A biting cold wind had pinched and slapped my face as I’d stood alone and paid my own tribute to the man at the impromptu memorial sprawling along the white wall by the main entrance to the ground. For a fleeting moment the ghostly negatives of Docherty’s Diamonds passed into view … those practice games we’d read about that took place at the back of the old Shed, faces from another era, the kings of the King’s Road.

Several months later, on a windswept rainy day, my girlfriend JoJo accompanied me to the Bridge to participate in a memorial service organised by Chelsea for Peter Osgood. The inclement weather had showed no signs of abating as JoJo and I had filed through the Shed End turnstile. If anything the rain had intensified, and as the Coldstream Guards trumpeted the commencement of the service accompanied by a deafening roll of thunder, I wondered if the great man himself might be looking down on proceedings from the watery heavens, that familiar wry smile forming on his face as Neil ‘representing Chelsea Football Club’ Barnett led the eulogies with his own moving homage to the King.

Tribute speeches by Chopper Harris, the Cat Bonneti and a sprightly looking Tommy Docherty, who refused the shelter afforded by Barnett’s umbrella, were warmly applauded, as were those made by a representative from Spital Old Boys (the team Ossie  had played for as a youth), and his immediate family.

The lip-biting, which had valiantly stemmed the flow of tears welling up in my eyes during the first half of the service, failed me as Mathew Harding Stand season ticket holder, the Reverend Martin Swan, commenced the fitting committal of Peter Osgood’s ashes to their final resting place beneath the Shed End penalty spot.

As the band struck up the opening bars to that most moving of hymns, Abide With Me, grown men wept openly and unashamedly, united in grief, struggling to maintain their composure. JoJo gripped my hand, her own eyes watering, swept along on a tide of emotive devotion; she’d met the King once, he’d kissed her on the cheek and praised her beauty calling me a ‘lucky fella’. Yeah, that was the Ossie.

‘Almighty God in your love you turn the darkness of death into the dawn of new life.’ Miraculously, during the prayer that followed, the rain relented and the leaden sky cleared, leaving Stamford Bridge momentarily bathed in brilliant sunshine whilst Ossie’s ashes were interred beneath the Shed End penalty spot. Chopper Harris and current Chelsea and England captain, John Terry, then unveiled a pitch-side plaque as the giant video screens played back footage of the great man in action.

‘Out from the Shed came a rising young star, scoring goals past Pat Jennings from near and from far, and Chelsea won as we knew that they would … and the star of that great team was Peter Osgood. Osgood, Osgood, Osgood, Osgood … Born is the king of Stamford Bridge.’

As I sang, my spine tingled. I smiled trying to remember which I’d heard first, the Christmas Carol, the First Noel, or it’s reincarnation as a Shed terrace classic dedicated to Ossie. It was closure of sorts … another link to my distant childhood broken. I looked at JoJo and then up at the sky, which had darkened malevolently once more, readying itself to unleash another raging torrent.   ‘Blue is the colour, football is the game, we’re altogether and winning is our aim. So cheer us on through the sun and rain, cos Chelsea, Chelsea is our name.’

In a way it was fitting that the service ended with a rendition of the enduring anthem Blue is the Colour. Gone and never to be forgotten, Peter Osgood will always be the King of Stamford Bridge, but come what may, Chelsea are the lifeblood that courses through every true Blue’s veins … always and forever.

‘Come to the Shed and we’ll welcome you, wear your blue and see us through … sing loud and clear till the game is done, sing Chelsea everyone. Oh! Blue is the colour, football is the game, we’re altogether and winning is our aim … so cheer us on through the sun and rain, cos Chelsea … Chelsea is our name.’

For our younger readers, Ken Monkou was a core team member of Chelsea’s infamous 1989/90 team that stormed into 5^th place in the league following promotion from the then second division.  What a season that was and what a team of legends – Micky Hazard, Kevin (the tache) Wilson, David ‘Rodders’ Lee, Kerry ‘I’ll have a lager thanks’ Dixon, Steve Clarke, Dave ‘Lurch’ Beasant and Graham ‘I’m a spud at heart’ Roberts.  A classic period, the best support and great memories.  Incidentally, at the end of the 1989/1990 season, Ken Monkou won the Chelsea fans Player of the Year.

Ken currently has a number of projects on the go and also works for Chelsea FC both in corporate hospitality and also for Chelsea TV.  Our thanks go to Ken for taking the time to talk to us and we apologise that our Costa Coffee studio was so hopelessly inadequate. We’re talking about the coffee. Viewers will need to turn the sound up to the max.

I wished I had been another yard or two quicker that I was. I lacked a yard or two in pace. It would have been nice to have been picked for England. However I captained the under 23s or the 21s whatever it was called in those days. I captained the England youth side which won a mini World Cup but I never really got into the senior squad.

Who was playing in your position for England? Who was keeping you out of the squad?

Bobby Moore, Norman Hunter…

What do you think of the current crop of Premiership players in general?

Premiership football over the last few seasons has a bit of a bad image. People falling around, diving. When you see certain players falling to the floor after a slight touch… that’s the sort of thing that’s shown throughout the next week. Some players at certain clubs carry on like they are royalty.

I know it’s changed completely since my day. We used to have people outside the dressing room doors. We would be more than pleased to come out. Nowadays with the security how it is, the players have to sneak outside via a back door. Which I think is a shame. Take for instance; if you and your son come down here, you get a glimpse on a Saturday. Whereas in my time the players were ushered out to sign autographs. Now there is such a big gap in terms of supporters and the players. I think that some of the players, not just at this club are more interested in the limelight. All their pictures in the papers. I’ve been to places where you are not allowed to park your car because the players are coming here in a minute. But they are footballers not royalty.

Chelsea have come in for some flack from some corners for being as much to blame as anyone for the diving culture. If you were managing the club now and you saw some of the things that some of the players do. Would you tell them to cut it out? How would you manage them?

You’ve only got to look at a certain game a few years ago. A certain player got booed off the park after the Manchester City game. If you have a look at what he has achieved since he decided to stay on his feet… maybe he deserved to have be booed.

Yes he scored two goals that day and still got booed…

It’s a disease that has come into our game.  Like if your kid plays football on the park, they see football on the television five nights a week or sometimes there’s three matches.  It’s not only foreign players, everyone is doing it now and it’s a shame.  There’s not a week go by when there’s not a controversial incident.  The only way they’re going to clear this up is if they start banning people for three matches and they get fined £40,000 which is two bob to them.  The referees are not always right anyway.  If a referee misses an incident the cameras could pick it up and the FA can ban you for three matches so why can’t they pick up somebody that’s falling over or diving.  Maybe not just ban them but deduct points.  If you watch cricket, years ago I used to play a lot of cricket, if you thought you were out you walked but there’s not too many people do that today.  If referees booked people a lot more often and sent them off then I think people would be a bit more reluctant to fall to the ground and you’re talking about people who are six foot odd who just get a touch and fall over.  It would take you more than that to push me over.  They go down too easy.  Sport today is completely different to what it was in our time.  I know people will turn round and say Franny Lee or Rodney Marsh but you wouldn’t class them as divers to the degree that’s happening here at every football club at the moment the players in my time were a little bit more honest and a little bit more genuine.  Nowadays you see them run twenty yards to remonstrate with the referee to get his book out or send him off.  To me that is a crime, we are all in it to earn a living you don’t need some a***hole to try and get you sent off.

You mention TV cameras, do you think in your day with so many around the ground would you have survived as a player?

Well I can honestly say I never hit anybody physically.  I’ve kicked a few people.  What amazes me in the present day football maybe it’s part of society nowadays.  If you go back through to the Leeds Chelsea cup final when the referee said eight fellas would be sent off you’d never see anybody go up to other players and stick their nut on them like you do today.

As a fan does it wind you up when other clubs fans, like Liverpool, sing we’ve got no history?  How do you feel about that?

It’s part and parcel of the supporters nowadays.  I would like to go on record and say that Liverpool were one of the best sides around in ’63 to ’68 or something like that.  I think Chelsea will win as many competitions as they did in that time.  It’s just friendly banter.

Is it true your mobile phone ringtone is Blue is the Colour?

Yes.  (Ron gets his phone out and proves it!).

Do you still have your fishing lake business?

No, we got rid of that about four years ago because Peter Osgood kept on saying to me about doing the dinner circuit and we felt we had taken it as far as we could and I enjoy doing what we do here doing the hospitality.  Like last week there was three games and I would rather be doing the hospitality and speaking.

Is that what you’re doing primarily?

We organise charity events for anybody that’s interested, Lani does that I usually speak at the events and the hospitality I do at the club.  Apart from people phoning up and asking me to speak at various clubs and functions.

Do you find people remember you just as well and just as pleased to see you?

I think the name helps, Chopper, I think more people know me as Chopper Harris than they do Ron and people still recognise me.  I’ve always had short hair, maybe I’m a bit greyer, but I think they remember me for some of the tackles.

What and why was your favourite game that you can recall apart from the FA Cup and European Cup Winners Cup?

There was two games that stuck out in my memory.  Peter Osgood missed the quarter finals of the CWC against Bruge.  Peter Osgood was suspended and I had been out for a month and missed the first leg over there which they won 2-0 and we finished up winning 4-0 here which I think Peter Houseman scored twice and I think we were still behind on aggregate with about twenty minutes to go.  Also, I remember the first goal I ever scored for Chelsea against Leicester when Banksy was in goal and we finished up winning 1-0.  I must have had a brainstorm and crossed the half way line and shot from about 30 yards.  I think they are two of my most memorable apart from the Cup Finals that I remember.

Do you think that’s the best goal you scored?

I scored one that got voted second best of the month when they used to have goal of the month and I remember scoring up at Derby.  They used to have a goalkeeper in goal at the time called Les Green who was only about 5 foot 5.

If you could have picked your own nickname what would it have been?  Who gave you the name Chopper?

It was the supporters actually who used to say that I sithed people down.  The only person here who didn’t call me Chopper was Ossie, he called me Buller because he alleged I talked so much bullsh*t.  He never called me Ron, always Buller.

You’ve seen a huge evolution at Chelsea over the years.  Do you think the fans have changed?

I think that what’s happened over the last few years most football clubs has been taken over by the corporate side, companies that can spend lots of money to take their clients.  We go round some of the boxes here like Adidas has boxes here.  On Saturday half the people come from Liverpool way. Roy Keane made a statement a few years ago and a lot of people criticised him for it but to a degree I think he was right.  I can remember years ago when my dad used to take me and my brother to the Arsenal we used to have to get there at 12 o’clock when the turnstiles used to open you could get down the front but if you come here at twenty to three now you wouldn’t even know there was a game on because nobodies in the ground are they?  They all come later on because they’ve got their own season tickets and I think that is one of the things that has happened in football.  Most times you see family is cup ties when you pay 25 quid for your ticket whereas normally it’s 60 quid.  People can’t afford 60 quid a ticket.

Have the fans got noisier or quieter?  How do you feel the atmosphere in the ground compares to when you played?

I know lots of hardcore supporters would like to be standing on terraces getting wet enjoying themselves.  At stadiums now if you jump up out of your seat and shout out something you get thrown out.  There’s lots of business people I know effing and blinding, they express themselves.  At football you vent your feelings I don’t think that happens at the moment because people are not allowed really to start ranting and raving.  I spoke before the Rugby League Challenge Cup at Twickenham last year when St Helens played Huddersfield or Bradford and all the supporters were mixed together and there was never no trouble and they had some good friendly banter.  You put Arsenal supporters with Chelsea supporters…

Obviously there was trouble in the ‘70s and early ‘80s, how did that affect you?  Did it affect the way you played?

No not really I think that the football went through a bit dodgy image with people smashing up coaches and fighting but they were probably most likely fighting with their fists.  Nowadays guns and knives and things like that.  I think the supporters are completely different to what they were years ago.

What’s your favourite Chelsea game as a fan?

We went to Barcelona just recently, the 2-2 game, and it’s the second time I’ve been there in a matter of years.  We left the hotel and had about a 20 minute walk.  There was 9 of us and we bumped into a posse of Chelsea supporters and they were chanting ‘Ron Harris’.  We went into the pub and they was all there and I think it’s fantastic, I’ve always got on ever so well with the supporters here.  I feel proud to still come here and look forward to every home game.  Lani comes with my son Martin and they go their separate ways and I do what I gotta do.  I think it’s fantastic, fantastic.

Well that wraps it up Ron and I can’t thank you enough

That’s alright

Thanks for talking to CFCnet and answering all our readers question, we really appreciate it.

What do you make of Chelsea’s start to the season?
Well, I’m not surprised they’re clear at the top because I fancied them before a ball was kicked. It will be interesting to see how they get on when they lose players to the African Nations Cup in January, but I think they’ve got enough strength in depth to get through it all. On top of that, I can’t really see where the threat is going to come from the other clubs.

Last season you followed Chelsea’s mixed fortunes very closely while writing about the Blues’ campaign in your new book, ‘Oh what a lovely war’ (to be published in 2010). What do you think are the main reasons for the team’s much more consistent performances this time around?
Chelsea have always had the players to do well, but compared to last season when things went badly wrong it’s clear that the spirit in the squad is a lot better and people want to be playing and be in the side again. Whereas last year the likes of Drogba gave the impression that he wasn’t bothered whether he was injured or not. He didn’t seem too keen about playing and he didn’t seem sure about staying at the club. That’s all changed this season and you can see the results on the pitch, where Chelsea just keep rolling teams over. Some of the credit must go to Ancelotti, who has introduced a slightly more adventurous style than we saw at the end of last season under Hiddink.

Turning to Arsenal, do you see them as realistic title challengers?
No, I don’t. Arsenal have various chinks in their armour which Chelsea don’t have. Defensively they have a few problems and I just can’t see them as a serious contender. I saw them lose at Stoke last season and they’re always likely to crack under the sort of pressure that Stoke put them under that day. The physical side of the game – as we saw again at Sunderland last weekend – has always been a problem for them. That’s been the case for some time and I don’t think it’s something that Wenger has ever got to terms with. If they’re not absolutely on top of their game they seem to struggle.

I think teams know that if they sit back against Arsenal they’re going to get pelted, but if they approach the game properly and try to attack Arsenal there is always the chance that they’ll get something out of it.

How do you think the game will go on Sunday?
I always think Chelsea have got the upper hand over Arsenal, wherever the game is played. I went with Steve Bould to the FA Cup game against Burnley at the Emirates earlier this year and I said to him halfway through that this Arsenal team would never beat Chelsea, simply because Chelsea would be too strong for them all over the pitch.

Fabregas is a good player but there’s too much on his shoulders, and if he’s not pulling all the strings I think they struggle a little bit. With Chelsea it doesn’t matter if, say, Frank Lampard has a quiet game because someone else will step up. I think that’s the key difference between the sides. All round Chelsea are just too strong for Arsenal, so I can’t see them losing on Sunday. You’ve got to remember, too, that the pressure isn’t on Chelsea to win so that’s in their favour as well. They can go there and approach the game in any way they want: they can take Arsenal on or play a bit more cautiously and try to hit them on the break. Arsenal, on the other hand, have got to win if they want to be considered realistic challengers but, as I’ve already said, I can’t see that happening.

AN EVENING WITH ALAN HUDSON
Alan Hudson will be taking part in a Q and A session at Sutton United FC this Friday (November 27th) at 7.30pm. Tickets to the event cost £10 and will be available on the night. (Admission includes a copy of ”The Special Ones: Chelsea by the Fans’ signed by Alan). For further information contact Mark Caswell on 07977 831519 or email mark.caswell1@btinternet.com

CLASSIC HUDDY ON YOUTUBE
One of the most talented players ever to pull on a Chelsea shirt, Alan Hudson helped the Blues win the FA Cup in 1970 (although, sadly, he missed the final against Leeds through injury) and the European Cup Winners’ Cup the following year. He was transferred to Stoke City for a then club record £240,000 in January 1974 and a year later made a brilliant international debut for England in a 2-0 victory against world champions West Germany at Wembley. Edited highlights of this match have recently surfaced on Youtube and are well worth checking out at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6ZDhvdupJA

* Clive Batty’s latest book is ‘The Pocket Book of Chelsea’. Please visit http://www.visionsp.co.uk/ for more details.

DAVID LEE ON…DAVID LEE…

I’m a development coach at Bristol City which means that I look after all of the youngsters at the club apart from those who are in the academy.

I oversee the professionals which include the under-21′s, and my role is to educate them a little both on and off the pitch and use my experience with them to hopefully develop them as players and people. If they apply themselves properly then they can have a career in football, but ultimately it’s up to them.

I did my coaching badges a few years ago and I always thought that it was the only thing I could do after my playing career ended. I worked at Swindon Town under Dennis Wise and Gus Poyet, and then I worked for a football agency based in Spain for a year. I enjoyed it but at the end of the day I would much rather do what I am doing now.

Bristol City’s youth team played Chelsea’s youth team and there were a few decent players on show. I think it’s hard to break through at Chelsea now, with JT the last guy to make it.

But the reason I went to Chelsea when I was a kid was because they always gave youth a chance. It is tough now and we may get the odd one, but I think that if you’re good enough, you’re old enough basically.

…ON CARLO ANCELOTTI…

I wasn’t surprised with Carlo Ancelotti’s arrival, Chelsea seem to have gone down that foreign route for quite a while now. I believe that he did very well at AC Milan, he’s very well respected in world football, he speaks very well and I think that he is a very deep thinker of the game.

I can’t see Ancelotti going the same way as Luis Felipe Scolari unless he has an absolute shocker! You look at the squad and with all due respect, most managers would love to work with them. Last year under ‘Big Phil’ they started well against Portsmouth, winning 4-0 on the opening day of the season, and then bang, everything started to go a little bit wrong.

Obviously Ancelotti will be judged at the end of the season as you tend to get judged on what you win these days, and unfortunately you don’t get the time that you want in management any more.

He’s taking over from Guus Hiddink and when he was at Chelsea, I couldn’t really fault anything. For what he did and what the fans say about him, I think there were a lot of disappointed people when he left after the cup final at Wembley. Some may have thought that he could have been swayed and that he would change his mind about leaving, but the man has honoured his word to Russia and gone back there.

I do not think that Ancelotti would have been in the frame had Hiddink made himself available.

…ON THE SUMMER TRANSFER MARKET…

Chelsea have been quiet in the transfer market this season haven’t they?

I think Manchester City have blown everyone else out of the water when it comes to the money side of it, whereas Chelsea have said that they aren’t prepared to spend hundreds of millions of pounds this year.

The fact that Joe Cole should be fit very soon means that they almost have a new player in him, a new signing, because I do think that they have missed him and he’s a fantastic lad.

I’m not sure that some of the players who have gone to Manchester City would be good enough for Chelsea, but that’s my own personal opinion. Carlos Tevez was linked with Chelsea but I’m not sure he would necessarily get into Chelsea’s side.

Mark Hughes is an ex-teammate of mine and I have got the utmost respect for him as well as the rest of the coaching staff, many of whom are friends of mine as well, but I just think that when you build a team it comes back to the old saying, ‘you build from the back,’ and Hughes seems to have gone the other way.

It will be interesting. They could have a start where they win six on the bounce and everyone says, ‘bloody hell!’ It could get to January and they’re top, where they can again go out and spend another £100m. Normally I am a believer that good players can play with anyone and if they do gel very quickly the other top sides will have to be very careful.

We’re only in the middle of August now so maybe Chelsea have another signing lined up. We shall see.

…ON THE JOHN TERRY SAGA…

John Terry has done nothing wrong and I just knew deep down that he would never leave.

In this country the newspapers and the media have a big say on what goes on. John has spoken, according to some a little later than he should have, but why should he have to speak out? He’s contracted to the club.

I just think the media made more and more of it and at the end of the day JT said that he was flattered but that he wanted to stay at Chelsea.

If Chelsea had accepted a bid for him then it would have been hard for JT to stay though. If a club accepts a bid like that then they are saying that, ‘we don’t want you here anymore,’ for whatever reason. But all parties conducted themselves properly during the whole situation, and Terry is still contracted to Chelsea.

I would have done the same if I was in JT’s situation, I would have stayed. Now Sparky has moved on to his next target.

…ON SQUAD STRENGTH…

Chelsea haven’t lost anyone. They haven’t lost people who are important to the club and I know they weren’t far away last year but I think that this season, Chelsea will be a lot closer to winning the league.

Stability is a big thing. You look at Manchester United and Sir Alex Ferguson has been there for over 20 years. They don’t panic. But I think that losing Cristiano Ronaldo and Tevez, two players who contributed massively to the side, will really affect them.

I think Xabi Alonso was Liverpool’s best player last season, and Arsenal have lost two of their more experienced players in Kolo Toure and Emmanuel Adebayor. It’s going to affect them.

United are usually slow starters and If Chelsea can get off to a good start themselves, and maybe open up a six, seven or eight point lead at the top by Christmas, then it could be enough.

Frank Lampard is very important for Chelsea, as is Didier Drogba if his head is right. Chelsea will probably lose out more than their rivals during the African Cup of Nations, with the likes of Salomon Kalou, John Obi Mikel, Michael Essien and Drogba away for the tournament, so it could be interesting.

I think it will be very tight and I wouldn’t like to call it. Obviously I hope Chelsea win it! I think that if you finish above Manchester United, you win the league.

…ON ICONHORSERACING…

Iconhorseracing have developed a plan which allows Chelsea fans to own shares in racehorses alongside ex-Chelsea players, including myself, Kerry Dixon and Ken Monkou.

It’s nice for fans to have a day out at the races and meet some players too. You do get some good days out racing and get to meet some very interesting people as well.

If any fans get the opportunity they should definitely join up.

Details can be found at http://iconhorseracing.com/index2.htm

David Lee was speaking to Rowan Farnham-Long.

It is quite a coup for CFCnet as there were no big money bids, scurrilous tabloid rumours, or conflicting ‘come and get me’ messages from agents. We also would like to put the record straight and insist that no tapping-up took place whatsoever, although we can confirm that a single bottle of beer was used to tempt the former centre-back.

Giving his opinions on the latest topical issues, with a hint of nostalgia along the way, CFCnet will get the inside track on latest club developments and the world as seen through the eyes of a footballer.

Roman may have recruited Ross Turnbull, Daniel Sturridge and Yuri Zhirkov but we’ve gone one better. Keep checking in to the main site for more exciting developments.

A lot of the dramatic focus, of course, has centred on the manager’s position. What, first of all, did Alan make of the brief but eventful Scolari reign? “I was a little bit disappointed with Scolari, mainly because he didn’t stick to his guns,” he says, talking exclusively to CFCnet. “He should have kept going the way he started. I think, unlike Mourinho or Hiddink, he could be influenced. That was his downfall; he shouldn’t have stood for ‘player power’, if that’s what it was. Managers should be above that because no player is bigger than the club. It wouldn’t have happened under Mourinho, he wouldn’t have let a good player like Drogba mess him about. Scolari lost Drogba as a player, and Drogba is a hell of a player when he’s on his game.”

Yet, it had all started so well with the Blues storming to the top of the table at the start of the season. Huddy was guest of honour at the Stoke-Chelsea game in September, receiving a rapturous reception from both sets of fans when he went on the pitch at half-time, and was hugely impressed by the Blues’ performance in an emphatic 2-0 victory. “They are the only team who have been to the Britannia Stadium this season and not been overawed by the way Stoke play,” he says. “Chelsea outplayed them and outmuscled them, and actually made Stoke look like a pub team. No other team has done that. Stoke are a very tough team at home and Chelsea made them look very, very average. I went down on the pitch at half-time and Stoke’s players were flagging while Chelsea’s hadn’t even broken sweat. They were winning at a canter. At the time I thought Chelsea were definitely going to win the league.”
The subsequent decline in the Blues’ fortunes has largely been ascribed to Scolari lacking a ‘Plan B’ but Huddy reckons over-confidence, even complacency, was the most important factor in the downturn in the team’s results. “Everything in football starts at the top,” he argues. “I don’t like managers and players who are forever in the papers talking a good game and saying they’re going to win the league. Managers should tell their players not to do it, because it’s a lot easier to say it than to do it, and they certainly shouldn’t do it themselves. But I think Scolari was guilty of that.”

The same accusation could hardly be levelled at the Brazilian’s replacement, the quietly authoritative Guus Hiddink . Unsurprisingly, then, Alan is a big fan of the Dutchman. “I’m very impressed by him and his record speaks for himself,” he says. “He’s a football man and he comes from a good environment, having been brought up in Holland in the Cruyff era. So he knows all about the game. You just need to see how Chelsea have done since he took over to see how good he is.”

But will Hiddink stay at the Bridge? It’s the question every Chelsea fan is wondering about as the season draws to a close. “I can see that they are going to try to move heaven and earth to get him to stay,” continues Alan. “But he’s so enraptured with the Russian job and he’s so loyal it could be difficult to persuade him, although I actually think he could carry on doing both jobs. There aren’t many managers around like him today – generally, if the big money is there they’ll move. They’ve become like players, moving from club to club for the wrong reasons.”

If Hiddink doesn’t stay at the Bridge there are no shortage of candidates to fill his place. Huddy, though, is unconvinced by Frank Rijkaard’s credentials and reckons that the Chelsea job is “too big” for Gianfranco Zola, although he acknowledges the good work the former Blues favourite is doing at West Ham. His preferred choice to manage the club he starred at in the late 1960s and early 1970s is another onetime Chelsea man, Terry Venables. “He would be an absolutely fantastic choice because he’s been there and done it all,” he says. “He knows how to handle players, how to handle the media. I really can’t understand why he has never managed Chelsea.”

‘El Tel’ for the Blues, then? It somehow seems improbable, but what’s for sure is that there are a few more unlikely twists to come in this potboiler of a season.

LUNCH WITH HUDDY
A sportsman’s lunch in honour of Alan Hudson is being held at the Eyston Arms, East Hendred, Oxfordshire on Sunday 10th May 2009, starting at 3pm. Alan will be joined on the day by fellow Chelsea legend Tommy Baldwin, former Stoke and Arsenal defender Steve Bould and National Hunt jockey Graham Bradley. Following a delicious three-course meal (complete with full bottle of wine per person), the quartet will take part in a question and answer session. There will also be an auction of selected sporting memorabilia. Tickets for the event (price £95 person, or £155 including overnight bed and breakfast accommodation) are available from Paul McCormack on 07917 897246 or legendsport@btinternet.com

I actually come down here more often than people think.  Obviously I report on all Manchester United games nowadays so I can’t get to that many Chelsea matches, but I’m often in London doing media work, and regularly find my way to Stamford Bridge or Cobham.

I actually went to see Chelsea play at Blackburn a couple of years ago and I went in the away end with the Chelsea fans, so I do still keep my hand in where Chelsea are concerned.

Your autobiography has just been published and you say in it that the biggest thumps you ever got were pats on the back from Chelsea supporters.

I’ve never made any bones about it, Chelsea were the best club I ever played for and the fans were the best I ever encountered.  I knew all about the Chelsea fans before I signed and I knew that we were made for each other.  After I left, I went to West Brom and we played Chelsea just a few weeks later.  Nobby Stiles was our manager and he said to me after the game: “I’ve played for England and Manchester United, I’ve won World Cups and European Cups, but I’ve never heard an opposing player receive an ovation like that from the supporters”.  There were about 6,000 Chelsea fans at The Hawthorns that day and they sang my name all the way through the game.  I was almost in tears.  They did it again when I came back with Shrewsbury, and I got choked up again.

Why do you think the supporters loved you so much?

Because they knew I was as mad as they were!  We had a lunatic following back then and I think they knew I was just one of the boys.  I scored twice on my home debut and I ran straight over to Gate 13, where all the loonies sat.  I think that struck a cord with them as well.

I also scored some big goals in big games, including when we beat Leeds United 5-0 to clinch promotion.  I think things like that helped, too.  It just all came together for me at Chelsea.  I loved everything about the club.

What do you remember of the game at Grimsby on the last day of the 1983/84 season?

We needed a win to be certain of the title, and their captain had said before the game to the local press that he didn’t fancy our chances.  John Neal just pinned up the article in the dressing room and that was all the motivation we needed.

Kerry Dixon scored with a header and Pat Nevin missed a penalty – which we were all doing at the time – but we won 1-0 and beat Sheffield Wednesday to the title.

There were thousands of Chelsea fans at Grimsby that day and I think play got held up at one point because they were all spilling over.  Then at the end of the game they all came on and were hugging us, taking our kit off us and all that.

I came down with Joey [Jones] last year to do a talk for the Chelsea fans and a guy stepped forward while I was talking and handed me the shirt I had worn that day at Grimsby.  He said he had taken it off me after the game.  I kissed it and gave it him back, and I have to admit I had to stop talking for a few seconds because I had a lump in my throat. 

You loved Chelsea and the fans loved you, so how difficult was it to leave?

It was heart-breaking but I had no choice.  John Hollins had made it clear to me that if I didn’t move south he would sell me.  I dug my heels in, although I couldn’t really do much about the situation anyway because I couldn’t afford to move, and one day at the training ground Hollins told me the chairman wanted to see me.  I said “Don’t you mean the manager?” and when I spoke to Ken Bates he told me they had accepted an offer for me.

I moved to West Brom and Hollins replaced me with Jerry Murphy, which I thought was an insult.

And what brings you to the Bridge today?

Well I’m here to commentate on the game and do some stuff for Sky, and Kelvin who wrote the book Celery has arranged a couple of book signings for me.  As ever, the Chelsea fans have been brilliant and I have been given a fantastic welcome.  I’m so glad the Chelsea supporters have finally got the team and the success they deserve.