Features

Can Michael Essien Return To His Best?

Yesterday we had the fantastic news that Michael Essien returned to competitive action for the reserves.

However when he is fully fit he returns to a very competitive Chelsea midfield with Lampard, Meireles, Ramires, Romeu and Mikel all hoping to keep him out of the team.

Whether they succeed will depend on what condition physically and mentally Essien is in when he takes to the field again.

He has been out with a rupture to anterior cruciate ligament and meniscus, which 20 years ago would have meant the end of career, saved by modern science we hae to hope he still has his speed and strength to compete at his best.

Mentally this will always be tough for him to recover from, when challenging for the ball it can be difficult for players to be as committed and fierce as they were before the injury.

Many players return but never comeback, subconsciously protecting the injured limb, this would rob Essien of his greatest attributes.

Coming back will be tough but if anyone can it will be ‘the Bison’ we will all be behind him 100%!

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Didier Drogba Joins 150 Club But What Is His Place In Chelsea Folklore?

Didier Drogba scored his 150^th goal for Chelsea in our defeat against Aston Villa and moved himself up the Chelsea record books to share a stage with legends such as Peter Osgood.

I often forget that through the good and the bad Drogba has now been at Chelsea nearly 8 years and been a key component in the most successful period of our history.

So this leaves me in a quandary, given his Jeckyll and hide nature is Didier Drogba a Chelsea legend?

On his game he is one of the most feared strikers in the world, he is strong, technically brilliant with a keen eye from goal that makes him a threat from four to forty yards out.

I remember his goals and matchwinning performances that have won him and the club accolades and trophies.

For these feats he is in many ways a Chelsea legend; however there have always been incidents that have dented his reputation with Chelsea fans.

Sometimes he can appear not to be bothered with what is going on in the game and totally uninterested and this has happened at various stages of his Chelsea career.

These are also punctuated with some less than impressive media displays from him and his agent in which he has stated that he has wanted to leave on more than one occasion, only to reverse himself or sign a new contract.

I think that in time and his medals and records will speak for themselves and he will be regarded as one of the greatest strikers in our history and a legend.

For now thou there are still marks on the copybook of an amazingly talented player, however I will let you make up your own mind.

CFC History – Stamford Bridge 1877 -1994

Today we have a guest post from the Here 4 The Chelsea about the history of Stamford Bridge

In the Beginning

Chelsea’s home stadium is called Stamford Bridge and has a history as varied and unique as the team itself.

Stamford Bridge officially opened on 28 April 1877.

For the first 28 years of its existence it was used almost exclusively by the London Athletic Club as an arena for athletics meetings and not for football at all.

In 1904 the ownership of the ground changed hands when Mr H A (Gus) Mears and his brother, Mr J T Mears, obtained the deeds, having previously acquired additional land (formerly a large market garden) with the aim of establishing a football team there on the now 12.5 acre site.

Stamford Bridge was designed by Archibald Leitch and initially included a 120 yard long stand on the East side which could hold 5000 spectators.

The other sides were all open in a vast bowl with thousands of tons of material excavated from the building of the underground railway provided high terracing on the West side.

The capacity was originally planned to be 100,000 and was the second largest in country behind Crystal Palace – the FA Cup final venue.

Initially the stadium was offered to Fulham FC to play there, they turned down the chance and so instead a new side, Chelsea Football Club, was born in 1905 and moved into the new Stamford Bridge stadium.

Why Is It Called Stamford Bridge

The name and place of Stamford Bridge is one with great significance in English history having been the site in Yorkshire of one of the most famous battles of King Harold’s reign in 1066 against the Vikings.

However it is believed that this is not connected to the naming of Chelsea’s football stadium which came about less because of historical significance and more to do with local landmarks and a fair degree of chance.

The 18th century maps show the Fulham Road and Kings Road area including the current day site of the stadium. It shows a stream called ‘Stanford Creek’ which runs along the route of the present day railway line behind the East Stand and flows down into the Thames.

Where the stream crosses the Fulham Road it is marked ‘Little Chelsea Bridge’ which was originally called Sanford Bridge (from sand ford). While a bridge over the stream on the Kings Road was called Stanbridge (from stone bridge).

It seems that these two bridge names and that of the stream, ‘Stanford Creek’, together evolved into the name Stanford Bridge, which again later evolved into Stamford Bridge as the adopted name of the stadium.

1930

From its creation the stadium remained largely unchanged until 1930 when the “Shed End” terraced area was erected.

A vast bank of terracing behind the southern goal it was to become the mecca for Chelsea’ most diehard supporters and would forever be associated with Stamford Bridge.

As the stadium developed the Shed End really came into its own in the 60′s, 70′s and 80′s and was the focal point of the hardcore Chelsea fans and the originators of most of the singing and atmosphere.

Adorned with a rather unique ‘roofed’ area (which barely covered 1/5th of the whole terrace) there is debate over how and when it developed the name ‘Shed’ as it wasn’t given a name when it was built.

The Shed was demolished in 1994 following new laws compelling grounds to be all seater and was replaced with the new Shed End seated stand in 1997.

The final match with the old Shed was Sheffield United at home on 7th May 1994 although sadly no one knew at the time it would be the last game so the Shed was never given the send off it deserved.

1939

In 1939 the North Stand was built. A curious stand in the north east corner it was an extension to the East stand and stuck out for being a completely different design to the rest of the stadium but it did provide extra seating.

It survived until 1975 when it was demolished and the north end was then open terracing until 1993 when it too was demolished at the start of the modern redevelopment of the entire stadium.

1964/65

In 1964/65, during one of Chelsea’s best periods on the pitch, saw the vast western terrace replaced by a seated stand. The stand was 3/4 seating and 1/4 concrete slabs affectionately known as the ‘Benches’.

The West stand existed for 25 years until it was the last of the old stadium to be demolished in 1998 and despite by that stage being a rickety, crumbling stand it too was a sad day for many when the old West Stand with it’s wooden seats went, and like the Shed, is a source of nostalgia.

Yet its replacement is quite simply one of the finest stadium stands in the country costing an estimated £30 million to build, and housing 13,500 people in luxury surroundings with superb views.

1973/74

In 1973 the East Stand was built, a marvel of engineering of the time and still one of the most striking stands in the country there’s little doubt it was ahead of its time.

The only part of the current stadium that survived the mass rebuilding of the 1990′s it has though undergone extensive refurbishment and refitting.

The East Stand, for all its magnificence also has a controversial past. When Chelsea were at their peak in the late 60′s and early 70′s the then owners decided the all star team on the pitch deserved to be playing in the best stadium in the country.

Their plan was hugely ambitious to completely redevelop Stamford Bridge into a 50,000 all seater circular stadium.

It proved too ambitious and many feel brought the club to it’s knees, forced the selling of the star players, relegation and nearly forced the club into complete ruin by the start of the 1980′s.

It took another 20 years to rebuild not only the stadium and team but the entire club, yet for all that the East Stand itself remains as impressive today as it always did.

Save The Bridge Campaign

With the club virtually bankrupt in the late 70′s the then owners made the drastic decision to sell the Stamford Bridge site to property developers to pay off some of the debts.

It was a decision that very nearly saw Chelsea lose its ground, be forced to share with Fulham or QPR and the famous stadium converted into houses or a supermarket.

With Chelsea no longer owning their own ground they were unable to do any more rebuilding and lagged behind other clubs in that respect.

A bitter, expensive and close run 10 year fight by chairman Ken Bates to fight the property developers and win back ownership of Stamford Bridge was finally successful in 1992.

With an ironic twist is was the property developers who were forced into bankruptcy and Chelsea FC got its ground back.

It was a close run thing at times but Stamford Bridge survived its biggest ever challenge and in 1994 the process of the most extensive redevelopment of any stadium in the country began.

Turning a dilapidated and crumbling ground with views miles from the pitch into one of the most impressive in the country.

Football During World War II – Statistics and Records

Following on from a look at the Football League War Cup Here4TheChelsea continues to look at football during World War II.

Wartime League Highlights

A Southern Group division was created in 1939 consisted of Arsenal, Brentford, Charlton, Chelsea, Fulham, Millwall, Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United.

The Blitz was still taking place when the 1941 Football League War Cup Final took place at Wembley on 31 May. Preston North End and Arsenal drew 1-1 in front of a 60,000 crowd. Preston won the replay at Blackburn, 2-1. Robert Beattie got both of Preston’s goals.

Wolves won the Football League War Cup in 1942 beating Sunderland 4-1. The team featured a player named Eric Robinson, who was to be killed during a military training exercise soon afterwards.

In the 1940-1941 season Preston North End needed to win their last game against Liverpool to win the North Regional League title. The nineteen year old Andrew McLaren scored all six goals in the 6-1 victory.

Controversies

The prospect of large gatherings of crowds during the 2nd World War proves to be an highly controversial to this day.

During the first season of The Football Wartime League, Britain had not experienced any bombings or military attack by Germany or its allies.

Whilst public attendance was reduced, fears of Britain’s safety were moderate.

However, despite the Phoney War ending and attacks on Britain and France beginning, the games continued and increases in attendance and match fixtures were introduced during the blitz.

The government stood by its decision and claimed these games were recreation for war workers.

Many war workers and guest players who played these games however supported the wartime league, claiming it allowed them an outlet from the war.

Player statistics

Total records of goals and appearances during the Wartime League have been ignored in respective career and league statistics, allowing players post-World War II to go higher than some of them in goal-scoring and appearance rankings.

Many critics do not acknowledge the wartime league as counting for career goals and appearances. The original invention of the Wartime Football League stated that the matches were to be regarded as friendlies.

Friendly matches to this day are not included in record terms for any team or player. Despite leagues being established in this time, the amount of Guest players, one-off appearances, resignations of teams from fixtures leading to adding up goal difference and appearances to go up the table, leads to many seeing these records as inaccurate, unfair, or unnecessary.

Majority of fan-based arguments debate that a player who exceeds one’s record through their wartime matches should nonetheless be seen as the club’s highest goal scorer or appearance having been part of the team’s squad even if only for a short time.

The most recent argument relates to the goal-difference between Jackie Milburn’s and Alan Shearer’s Newcastle United goal-scoring records.

When counting Jackie’s wartime matches, he scored a total of 238 professional goals for Newcastle United FC. In May 2005, Alan Shearer finished his career at 206 goals.

He has since been defined as the club’s highest ever goal scorer. The wartime league’s exclusion from Jackie’s United record sees him taken down to 200 goals.

It has been debated among the Newcastle United fans that Shearer should be quoted as 2nd to Milburn in this respect. NUFC.com acknowledges Milburn’s war record of an additional 38 goals, but his family have publicly supported Shearer’s status and have not debated his achievement.

Meanwhile in Germany……

The 1939-40 season started in August 1939, but with the outbreak of the Second World War shortly after, league football was suspended. It only resumed at the end of October, with a number of local city-championships having been played to bridge the gap.

 As the war progressed, top-division football became more regionalised. It also expanded into occupied territories, some of them annexed into Greater Germany, increasing the number of tier-one Gauligas considerably from the original 16 in 1933.

The last German championship was played in 1944 and won by Dresdner SC, but the last official league game was played as late as 23 April 1945, being the FC Bayern Munich versus TSV 1860 Munich derby in the Gauliga Oberbayern, ending 3-2.

The final years of league football saw the rise of military teams, like LSV Hamburg, who reached the 1944 German championship final, since most top-players were drafted into the German armed forces and ended up playing for these sides. Representative teams like the Rote Jäger also had a number of German internationals playing for them.

With the end of the war, ethnic German football clubs in the parts of Germany that were awarded to Poland and the Soviet Union disappeared.

Clubs like VfB Königsberg and Vorwärts-Rasensport Gleiwitz, who had successfully competed in the German championship on quite a number of occasions disappeared for good.

In Czechoslovakia, where the ethnic German minority in the Sudetenland was forced to leave the country, clubs experienced the same fate.

A few, like BSK Neugablonz, where reformed by these refugees in West Germany.
Some of the events of the war continue to affect German football today.

Within the first couple of weeks of the re-development of the Mercedes-Benz Arena in 2009, home of the VfB Stuttgart, 18 undetonated bombs left over from air raids on Stuttgart during the Second World War were found on the construction site.

The stadium was originally built, like so many others in Germany, on rubble left over from the war.

Football During World War II – Football League War Cup

The Football League War Cup was an association football tournament held between 1939 and 1945 which aimed to fill the gaping hole left in English Football by the cancellation of the FA Cup.

Throughout the latter 1930s it was becoming inevitable that a second World War with Germany was coming. On 3 September 1939 following Germany’s invasion of Poland, Neville Chamberlain announced war on Nazi Germany.

On 14 September 1939, the government announced football games would continue but not under the divisions that the game traditionally held season to season. The Football League survived 18 League matches before it was abandoned.

After a fifty mile travelling limit was established, the football association divided the football league into separate regional leagues with reduced attendance numbers.

In the interests of public safety, the number of spectators allowed to attend these games was limited to 8,000.

These arrangements were later revised, and clubs were allowed gates of 15,000 from tickets purchased on the day of the game through the turnstiles.

Football stadiums during this time were used as military bases. Many footballers during this time left their careers to join the Territorial Army. The lack of numbers in squads saw clubs inviting Guest Players to play.

Between September 1939 and the end of the war, 783 footballers joined in the war effort. 91 men joined from Wolverhampton Wanderers, 76 from Liverpool, 65 from Huddersfield Town, 63 from Leicester City, 62 from Charlton, 55 from Preston North End, 52 from Burnley, 50 from Sheffield Wednesday, 44 from Chelsea, and 41 each from Brentford and Southampton, Sunderland and West Ham United.

Each season saw the divisions switched around from region to region. The first season of the Wartime League 1939-40 season, saw ten divisions established, two in the north of England, one in the West Midlands, one in the East Midlands, one in the South West and two in London, which were both played in two sections.

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