Chelsea: The 100-year History (Mainstream Sport)

by IanMacleay (Author), Brian Mears (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2005

  $3.27

  In the blistering high summer of 2003, Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich acquired Chelsea Football Club. It was a sensational event that sent shock waves reverberating around the global village that is celebrity football in the twenty-first century. Chelsea, the institution, was transformed overnight into arguably the most powerful club in the world by virtue of the vast fortune bestowed upon them by their benefactor. This was an amazing twist to a story that started almost a century before on a piece of wasteground in west London. The genesis of Chelsea, founded in 1905, was pioneered by the Mears family, who would remain at the helm for more than two-thirds of that century. Brian Mears was a particularly significant figure in his role as chairman throughout the colourful period from the end of the swinging '60s until the early 1980s. In this follow-up to the seminal Chelsea: Football Under the Blue Flag, Mears and Macleay recount the events that have engulfed London's most glamorous club over the years. Its exciting major players, including Hughie Gallacher, Roy Bentley, Jimmy Greaves, Peter Osgood, Alan Hudson, Kerry Dixon, Dennis Wise, Gianfranco Zola and Frank Lampard, have become creatures of myth. Meanwhile, managers such as Tommy Docherty, Dave Sexton, Glenn Hoddle, Ruud Gullit, Gianluca Vialli, Claudio Ranieri and Jose Mourinho have proved to be some of the most flamboyant and controversial in the history of the game. Chelsea: The 100-Year History is peopled with unforgettable characters like the peerless Terry Venables and the late Matthew Harding. It is an embodiment of Mears' own passion for the club as he traces some of the most important matches and crises in its sometimes tragic trajectory from glory to impoverishment and back again to a glorious 100th season.

• Used

  Hardcover
  2002

  $3.27

  Chelsea Football Club is today a brand-name industry worth millions and football's longest-running soap opera. Brian Mears was chairman of Chelsea at arguably the most volatile period of its tempestuous history - when the club tumbled catastrophically from being Kings of Europe to relegated has-beens. The only time Chelsea ever won the Championship was in 1955 when Brian's father was chairman. This book tells of their unique triumph and their half-a-century quest to repeat it. Marvel at the talents of the greatest goal machines the club has ever produced: Jimmy Greaves and Peter Osgood in their prime. Discover the truth about the golden age of the Bad Boys: the careers of Chelsea superstars who burned brightly and were then crippled by drink. Other Chelsea bad boys congregated in the legendary 'Shed' and were the equivalent of the Jesse James Gang in hooligan terms. The former chairman tells of his dealings with the most feared fighting crew in the game: the notorious Chelsea Headhunters. Margaret Thatcher enlisted his help in trying to stop the havoc they wreaked. The Mears family were the founders of Chelsea Football club. Brian Mears partied with the A-list celebs. He socialised with Michael Caine, dined with Prince Philip, drank with George Best and shopped with Elton John. Who else can claim to have sacked Geoff Hurst and Sir Alf Ramsey, who helped win England the 1966 World Cup? Today's football is dominated by the characters that Mears dealt with and that later became household names, like Terry Venables, George Graham and Kevin Keegan. Brian's meeting with Matthew Harding and his tragic death in a helicopter crash are documented. Harding's love for Chelsea through 30 years of strife formed the basis of their brief friendship. Chelsea: A Modern History analyses the 'noveau' Chelsea with their cool foreign players and millionaire lifestyles. Read a roller-coaster history of the club through the '60s '70s and '80s.