118 years of existence

             118 years of existence 

Adebayo Nurudeen

Days of Humble Beginnings

118 years ago, Chelsea Football Club was founded by Henry Augustus. The scale of the club started from scratch and promised to be huge in every aspect. On Thursday 20 April 1905, Chelsea Football & Athletic Club registered at Companies House with a capital of £5,000 from 3,505 shares allotted; decided to form a professional football club, to be called the Chelsea Football Club, for Stamford-bridge.

Stamford Bridge is located in Fulham,  With a capacity of 40,341, it is the ninth-largest venue of the 2022–23 Premier League season and the eleventh-largest football stadium in England.

The arrival of the Russian Messiah

Chelsea got to its peak during the arrival of Russian Billionaire ‘Roman Abrahmovic’. With the club facing an apparent financial crisis, Bates unexpectedly sold Chelsea F.C. in June 2003 for £60 million. In so doing, he reportedly recognized a personal profit of £17 million on the club he had bought for £1 in 1982 (his stake had been diluted to just below 30% over the years).

 The club's new owner was Russian oligarch and billionaire Roman Abramovich, who also took on responsibility for the club's debt, in the region of £80 million, quickly paying some of it.  He then went on a £100 million spending spree before the start of the season and landed players like Claude Makélélé, Geremi, Hernán Crespo, Wayne Bridge, Glen Johnson, Joe Cole, and Damien Duff. 

The spending saw a good return, with Chelsea finishing as Premier League runners-up (their best league finish for 49 years) and reaching the Champions League semi-finals after dramatically beating the Arsenal Invincibles in the quarter-finals. However, Chelsea lost the semi-final to Monaco with manager Claudio Ranieri criticized for some tactical decisions such as switching central midfielder Scott Parker to right-back and right-back Glen Johnson to center-back to accommodate more attackers in the team). Ranieri was eventually sacked and replaced by José Mourinho (who had lifted two Portuguese league titles, a Portuguese Cup, a Champions League title and a UEFA Cup with Porto) as the club's new manager and the rest they say is history. 

Since Abrahmovic’s takeover, the club has won 18 major trophies – the UEFA Champions League twice, the UEFA Europa League, the UEFA Supercup twice, the Premier League five times, and the FA Cup five times (with 2010 providing the club's first-ever league and FA Cup double), and the League Cup three times, making Chelsea the most successful English trophy winning team during Abramovich's ownership, equal with Manchester United (who have also won 16 major trophies in the same period).

Managerial change and Expensive signings as the party line for success

Three things are inevitable in life: death, taxes, and Chelsea hiring a new manager. 

The abrasive, impatient owner of Chelsea Football Club has a propensity for getting rid of managers at a fast pace, as well as signing flashy superstars to make the product on the pitch better than the season before. From 1905 til date, Chelsea had hired 41 head coaches.

The men's team won 32 trophies, and the women's team has 13 gold medals to their name.

The Cobham Boys

The Chelsea Academy develops players from Under-9 through to Under-23. Many tournaments are won at schoolboy ages and there is success in domestic competitions too. They have won 9 fa youth Cups and 2 UEFA youth leagues.

Chelsea’s most expensive signing

Enzo Hernandez

The Argentine was signed for a head-spinning 107 million pounds after an impressive display in the 2022 world cup won by Argentina.

Mykhaylo Mudryk 

The  Ukrainian footballer played for Shakhtar Donetsk and  Chelsea paid 70 million euros to sign him in this transfer window.

Romelu Lukaku

Chelsea broke their transfer record when they resigned Belgian striker Romeu Lukaka from Inter Milan after his brilliant season in the Seria A. Lukaku was in red-hot form for Inter in the 2020-21 season bagging 24 goals in 36 games. 

Chelsea, who were in the market for a striker, went all out to bring Lukaku back to Stamford Bridge as they paid over 100 million Euros for his services. Lukaku signed for Chelsea in a deal worth 97.7 million pounds. Unfortunately, the transfer is a bad one as the player turned out to be a flop.

Kai Havertz

Kai Havertz was signed by Chelsea from German club  Bayer Leverkusen in the year 2020 for a sum of 72 million Pounds (84 million Euros). He was one of former Chelsea manager Frank Lampard's biggest signings during his stint at the club.

Havertz was on the radar of several big clubs after his impressive performances for Leverkusen but was roped in by Chelsea for a huge fee. He scored the winning goal for the Blues in the Champions League final against Manchester City to help Chelsea win the prestigious trophy.

Kepa Arrizabalaga

Chelsea had broken the record for the highest transfer fee for a goalkeeper when they signed Spain's Kepa Arrizabalaga from Athletic Bilbao for a staggering sum of 71 million pounds in the year 2018. However, Arrizabalaga struggled in his initial days at the club, and fortunately, he is now in the best form of his life.

Alvaro Morata

Alvaro Morata had returned to Real Madrid after a terrific spell at Juventus and was determined to cement his spot in the squad. He won the La Liga and Champions League with Real in the 2016-2017 season before being sold to Chelsea by the Los Blancos in 2017. Chelsea paid a huge fee of 60 million pounds for the Spanish striker who failed to make an impact for the Blues.

Morata never quite manage to replicate his Juventus heroics for Chelsea and was awful in front of the goal at times. He was loaned to Atletico Madrid in January 2019 and was later permanently sold to the La Liga giants.

Integration of the Cobham Boys

 For over 20 years, John Terry was the only academy player to graduate into the senior team.

Chelsea football club is known for spending on football stars, the transfer ban during the 2019/2020 season saw Chelsea integrate the likes of Reece James, Mason Mount, Billy Glimour, Fikayo Tomori, and Tammy Abraham into the Chelsea first team.

Now within the team, Chelsea has the likes of Loftus cheek, Reece James, Mason Mount, Nathan Chalobah, and Lewis Hall playing regular football. 

Best players to ever grace the men's team

Frank Lampard

In his thirteen years with the club, Lampard established himself as a prolific scorer from midfield, becoming Chelsea's all-time leading goalscorer, with 211 goals scored in all competitions.

John Terry

Captain, leader, and legend. He represents everything that concerns Chelsea. He has to be the greatest captain in premier league history. His goalscoring ability is outrageously ridiculous for a center-back, and his defensive ability is pure art a combative animal, and a pivotal leader.

Didier Drogba

The big man from the ivory coast, our black mafia delivered when we needed him. He delivered in Munich and scores our wembley goals.

Pert Cech

A legend known for his saves and always appearing in his favorite helmet.

Eden Hazard

Those special nights in Baku,  the dribble at Anfield, and the run against Arsenal will never be forgotten. I curse the day Eden signed for Madrid as well as the injuries that made him fall from grace.

Chelsea's History of African players

Chelsea is known for signing black players, here is a list of them.

Victor Moses

John Obi Mikel

George Weah

Celestine Babayaro

Samuel Eto'

Geremii

Salmon Kalou

Mark Stein

Micheal Essien 

Didier Drogba

Chelsea's all-time best eleven

Petr cech

John Terry

Gary Cahill

Ashley cole

Recce James

Ngolo Kante

Frank Lampard

Micheal Essien

Eden Hazard

Juan Mata

Didier Drogba

Keep the blue flag flying high cause Chelsea is our name and blue is the color