history of chelsea football club
In 1904, Gus Mears acquired the Stamford Bridge athletics stadium with the aim of turning it into a football ground. An offer to lease it to nearby Fulham was turned down, so Mears opted to found his own club to use the stadium. As there was already a team named Fulham in the borough, the name of the adjacent borough of Chelsea was chosen for the new club; names like Kensington FC, Stamford Bridge FC and London FC were also considered. Chelsea were founded on 10 March 1905 at The Rising Sun pub (now The Butcher's Hook), opposite the present-day main entrance to the ground on Fulham Road, and were elected to the Football League shortly afterwards.
The club won promotion to the First Division in their second season, and yo-yoed between the First and Second
Divisions in their early years. They reached the 1915 FA Cup Final, where they lost to Sheffield United at Old
Trafford, and finished third in the First Division in 1920, the club's best league campaign to that point. Chelsea
attracted large crowds and had a reputation for signing big-name players, but success continued to
elude the club in the inter-war years.
Former Arsenal and England centre-forward Ted Drake became manager in 1952 and proceeded to modernise
the club. He removed the club's Chelsea pensioner crest, improved the youth set-up and training regime, rebuilt
the side with shrewd signings from the lower divisions and amateur leagues, and led Chelsea to their first major
trophy success – the League championship – in 1954–55. The following season saw UEFA create the European
Champions' Cup, but after objections from The Football League and the FA Chelsea were persuaded to
withdraw from the competition before it started. Chelsea failed to build on this success, and spent the
remainder of the 1950s in mid-table. Drake was dismissed in 1961 and replaced by player-coach Tommy Docherty.
Docherty built a new team around the group of talented young players emerging from the club's youth set-up and Chelsea challenged for honours throughout the 1960s, enduring several near-misses. They were on course for a treble of League, FA Cup and League Cup going into the final stages of the 1964–65 season, winning the League Cup but faltering late on in the other two. In three seasons the side were beaten in three major semi-finals and were FA Cup runners-up. Under Docherty's successor, Dave Sexton, Chelsea won the FA Cup in 1970, beating Leeds United 2–1 in
a final replay. Chelsea took their first European honour, a UEFA Cup Winners' Cup triumph, the following year, with another replayed win, this time over Real Madrid in Athens.
The late 1970s through to the '80s was a turbulent period for Chelsea. An ambitious redevelopment of Stamford Bridge threatened the financial stability of the club star players were sold and the team were relegated. Further problems were caused by a notorious hooligan element among the support, which was to plague the club throughout the decade. In 1982, Chelsea were, at the nadir of their fortunes, acquired by Ken Bates for the nominal sum of £1, although by now the Stamford Bridge freehold had been sold to property developers, meaning the club faced losing their home.On the pitch, the team had fared little better, coming close to relegation to the Third Division for the first time, but in 1983 manager John Neal put together an impressive new team for minimal outlay. Chelsea won the Second Division title in 1983–84 and established themselves in the top division, before being relegated again in 1988. The club bounced back immediately by winning the Second Division championship in 1988–89.
After a long-running legal battle, Bates reunited the stadium freehold with the club in 1992 by doing a deal with the banks of the property developers, who had been bankrupted by a market crash. Chelsea's form in the new Premier League was unconvincing, although they did reach the 1994 FA Cup Final with Glenn Hoddle. It was not until the appointment of Ruud Gullitas player-manager in 1996 that their fortunes changed. He added several top international players to the side, as the club won the FA Cup in 1997 and established themselves as one of England's top sides again. Gullit was replaced by Gianluca Vialli, who led the team to victory in the League Cup Final, the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup Final and the UEFA Super Cup in 1998, the FA Cup in 2000 and their first appearance in the UEFA Champions League. Vialli was sacked in favour of Claudio Ranieri, who guided Chelsea to the 2002 FA Cup Final and Champions League qualification in 2002–03.
In July 2003, Bates sold Chelsea to Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich for £140 million. Over £100 million was spent on new players, but Ranieri was unable to deliver any trophies,[26] and was replaced by José Mourinho. Under Mourinho, Chelsea became the fifth English team to win back-to-back league championships since the Second World War (2004–05 and 2005–06), in addition to winning an FA Cup (2007) and two League Cups (2005 and 2007). After a poor start to the 2007–2008 season, Mourinho was replaced by Avram Grant, who led the club to their first UEFA Champions League final, which they lost on penalties to Manchester United.
Luiz Felipe Scolari took over from Grant, but was sacked after 7 months following poor results. Guus Hiddink then took over the club on an interim basis while continuing to manage the Russian national football team. Hiddink guided Chelsea to another FA Cup success,after which he left the club to return full-time to the Russian managerial position. In 2009–10, his successor Carlo Ancelotti led them to their first Premier League and FA Cup Double", the team becoming the first English top-flight club to score 100 league goals in a season since 1963. In 2012, caretaker manager Roberto Di Matteo led Chelsea to their seventh FA Cup, and their first UEFA Champions League title, beating Bayern Munich 4–3 on penalties, the first London club to win the trophy. In 2013, interim manager Rafael Benítez guided Chelsea to win the UEFA Europa League against Benfica, helping them become the first club to hold two major European titles simultaneously and one of five clubs, and the first British club followed by Manchester United, to have won all three of UEFA's major club competitions. In the summer of 2013, Mourinho returned as manager, leading Chelsea to League Cupsuccess in March 2015, and their fifth league title two months later. Mourinho was removed after four months of the following season, with the club having lost 9 of their first 16 games and sitting only one point above the relegation zone. Two years later, under new coach Antonio Conte, Chelsea won its sixth English title.
