B. Chelsea History (2003-2006)

[loz]

Chelsea History (2003-2006)

Written by Loz in November 2009

2003/04 SEASON

On April 23rd, 2003 Roman Abramovich sat in Old Trafford and witnessed Manchester United beat Real Madrid 4-3 in a Champions League tie (but ultimately get knocked our 6-5 on aggregate). At this point he had only been passionate about football for a short space of time having fallen for the game when he was at the 2002 World Cup finals in Japan and Korea.

On returning to Moscow he contacted his ‘people’ and said ‘Find me a football club’. They found him ten English clubs (and they knocked Russian Sat Navs), which was narrowed down to a short list of four.

The day of the Man Utd vs Real Madrid tie a lunch took place at Les Ambassadeurs Club, Park Lane, attended by football agents Pina Zahavi and Jonathan Barnett and also Chelsea Chief Executive, Trevor Birch. The meeting was predominantly to discuss players that Birch needed to ship out of Chelsea however discussions soon drifted onto the fact that we were as skint as a West Ham fan with a defunct merry go round. We had debts of about £90m (which included a £75m Euro Bond at a crippling 9% annual interest) and one of the highest wage bills in English football totalling £50m per annum.

Zahavi had good connections in Russia and was aware of Roman’s potential interest. Two weeks later Zahavi called Birch back to tell him of an interested party. By then Roman had considered buying Spurs, Manchester United and Arsenal (yet another signing Spurs nearly made). Spurs would probably have got their man if it wasn’t for Daniel Levy trying to fleece Abramovich, by asking £50m for just under 30% of a club which, based on its share price, was only worth £20m.

That’s right Daniel, you get to be a billionaire by walking around wearing a baseball cap with ‘I am a f*ckwit’ written on it.

Ken Bates, at this point, was desperately trying to secure new finance but refusing to sell off the family jewels. We still owed money for the transfer fees of Zenden and Petit, were resisting a piss poor offer of £6m for Hasselbaink from Barcelona and had William Gallas knocking at the door looking for a new contract whilst his agent wasn’t slow in highlighting Arsenal’s interest. Bates did have a few potential avenues which he was looking into but I won’t bore you with tales of what didn’t happen.

On June 23rd Zahavi asked Birch how much it would cost to buy Chelsea. Our shares were valued at 20p – Birch asked for 40p a share but admitted the price was negotiable (careful Trevor, remember the f**kw*t hat!). Zahavi passed that information back to Abramovich who promptly requested a meeting to do a deal.

Three days later Birch met Abramovich, Eugene Tenenbaum and some bloke called Tkachenko. The meeting was swift. Roman then asks to meet Ken Bates and delays his flight home (Easyjet never delayed a flight when I was stuck in traffic). Our current and future owner met at the Dorchester at 1910 and before 2000 they had shaken hands on a deal. Bates is reported to have shed tears that night at the thought of handing over control of the club he had saved, rebuilt, and then potentially bankrupted.

The total price paid was in the region of £140m. £60m for the shares and £80m to take responsibility for the outstanding debt (we had £10m of reserves hence the net debt being £80m rather than £90m). The lad got a bargain; Manchester United would have cost him the best part of £700m to buy and that came with Gary Neville!

Meanwhile back in the world of day to day football Gianfranco Zola is waiting to hear about his new contract and the best we can offer the greatest player ever to pull on the Chelsea shirt involves a 50% pay cut. As ridiculous as that may sound now you have to consider it in the context of our perilous financial situation at that time.

On July 1st the official announcement was made that Abramovich had bought Chelseaa. Bates and Trevor Birch kept their places on the board and were joined by Richard Creitzman, Eugene Tenenbaum and Eugene Shivdler. The next day Roman is asked which players he wants to buy and he mentions Thierry Henry and Sol Campbell (clearly he hadn’t grasped our sense of directed loathing!)

By this time Zola had agreed to return to Cagliari to see out his playing career. Roman’s takeover had come just too late to resurrect contract discussions with the magic man. However that didn’t stop Roman trying. Cagliari president, Massimo Cellino, revealed that Roman sent Zola a fax offering him £3m a year to return to Chelsea and had also offered Cellino £1.25m just to rip up Zola’s contract. Zola was always a man of integrity and his head was not to be turned by greed. He turned down Roman’s offer and later said ‘My reputation with the Sardinian people was at stake, and I knew that they were expecting a great deal from me.’

Then the big bucks transfers began! Well not quite. Jurgen Macho signed on a free transfer! At the same time John Terry signed a new four year contract.

The papers are full of rumours that Claudio Ranieri was not a high enough profile manager and these rumours were further fuelled by photos showing England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson joining Pini Zahavi in Abramovich’s London apartment for a ‘chat.’ Other names in the mix were Capello and Alex Ferguson.

The managerial speculation went on for a while but was about as interesting as a Liverpool team with Mascherano and Lucas playing as two holding midfielders so I will spare you the details.

What then interested the press is who we were going to buy and they speculated with a fury not seen since the ‘Back to Work’ scheme was rolled out in Merseyside.

Before that rollercoaster began there was time for a emotional farewell. Zola said his farewells to the players at the training ground on July 5th and, two days later, said goodbye officially at a press conference which witnesses a genuinely distressed Claudio Ranieri.

Gudjohnsen joined John Terry in signing a new contract and we paid West Ham £6m for Glen Johnson, at that time an 18 year old right back. It was widely reported that he was an Eriksson recommendation.

Then the transfer demands exploded. Everyone knew we were minted and they wanted a slice of Roman’s pie. Raul’s agent wanted £70m and figures between £50m and £70m were quoted for Thierry Henry and Patrick Vieira. Meanwhile our first signing, Jurgen Macho, suffered cruciate ligament damage meaning our back up to Carlo Cudicni was Marco Ambrosio who had signed for us a month before Roman’s takeover.

Geremi signed from Real Madrid (via a loan season with Middlesbrough) for £7m. On the other flank we brought in Wayne Bridge with Le Saux going the other way to join Southampton. Two days later, on July 18th, Blackburn finally ‘accepted’ our fourth bid for Damien Duff, It wasn’t really a case of accepting the bid, more that our £17m offer triggered a release clause in Duff’s contract meaning Blackburn had no choice but to allow us to negotiate with Duff’s agent.

Gallas’s noises about joining Arsenal soon disappeared as the cash started getting thrown about. He denied it had anything to do with money and stated that he was now content because we were bringing in players of quality. He signed a one year extension to his existing contract – it still had three years to run at that point. Hmm…

Ranieri turned his attention to strengthening the centre of the park. He wanted a ball winner and a playmaker and the names mostly mentioned in despatches were Juan Sebastian Veron, Steven Gerrard, Patrick Vieira, Emerson and Edgar Davids. Davids wasn’t keen on leaving Juventus, Arsenal batted away any interest in Vieira and it is reported that Roma rejected an offer in the region of £25m for Emerson although this didn’t prevent Emerson’s agent travelling to London to hold talks with Chelsea officials.

Meanwhile the finest holding midfielder in the planet had fallen out with Real Madrid over wage demands and we upped our interest in Claude Makalele. Reports were that Real were paying new signing David Beckham as much as five times more than Makalele and when his demands for a pay rise were rejected he went on strike.

Behind the scenes thing were not running entirely smoothly. Shvidler resigned as a director just shy of four weeks in the job (citing a heavy workload as his reason), the relationship between Roman and Ken Bates was already showing signs of tension and Claudio Ranieri was constantly dogged by rumours that his position as manager was as safe as a mountain bike in Toxteth. Shvidler was replaced by Bruce Buck, an American lawyer whose firm had advised Roman during the takeover and who had been a Chelsea season ticket holder for a few years already.

Our pursuit of Veron adds further fuel to the media fire linking Chelsea with Eriksson (remember Veron had been the key playmaker in Eriksson’s Lazio side) and eventually we increased our offer to a level that interested Alex Ferguson. Fergie had been making a whole lot of noise about Veron not going anywhere however once the money was flashed before him he, somewhat cowardly, tried to turn the Utd fans against Veron by stating ‘I put it to him to see if he wanted to go and never got an answer.’

In early August, 34 year old club captain Marcel Desailly rejected talk of retirement and signed on the dotted line for a further two seasons and this is followed by the announcement of a substantial investment in a new training ground. On the same day Chelsea decided not to pursue their interest in 18 year old Cristiano Ronaldo (who Zahavi had recommended as a definite player to target) as we thought he was too young to make the move.

On August 6th we secured the signing of boyhood Chelsea fan Joe Cole from West Ham and the next day we signed Veron for £15m. It transpired that the main reason Fergie had been holding up the sale of Veron was that he wanted Glen Johnson to be thrown in as part of the deal. Ranieri described Veron as ‘the best midfielder in the world’ – it was a statement that would come back to haunt him.

Two further potential targets then slipped away with Inter Milan rejecting our attempts to sign Christian Vieri and our interest in Samuel Eto’o coming to nothing even though he is available from Real Mallorca for what transpired to be the cut price sum of £6.9m.

Inevitably the influx of new players also results in the exit door beckoning for players. Zola is followed out of the Bridge by Ed De Goey, Enrique De Lucas, Jody Morris, Albert Ferrer and Leon Knight. Meanwhile loan deals would later be secured for Carlton Cole, Mikael Forssell and Bolo Zenden.

On August 11th we signed a player who would still be causing problems six years later. £15.8m secured the signing of Romanian striker Adrian Mutu from Parma. Mutu had only played one season in Serie A and was voted player of the season. However he also arrived with no shortage of baggage. He was being investigated by the Romanian police as his wife had alleged he had assaulted her. She eventually dropped the charges and filed for divorce. Mutu had a playboy reputation and maybe our rush to secure players before the season started meant we didn’t give sufficient consideration to his ‘lifestyle’ choices.

Our first competitive game of the Abramovich era was the away leg of a Champions League qualifier against Slovakian champions MSK Zilina on August 13th. Eidur Gudjohnsen put us ahead in the first half but it is not till late in the game that we made things comfortable courtesy of an own goal. Debuts were handed out to Glen Johnson, Wayne Bridge, Juan Sebastian Veron, Geremi, and Damien Duff and there was also a rare first team start for Mikael Forssell, selected ahead of Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink who didn’t even make the 16.

Four days later saw the start of the new Premiership season with out first game away at Anfield. I remember this game very well because I was in holidaying in Barcelona, amidst one of the worst heat waves Europe had ever experienced and with a wife who was nearly six months pregnant. I sent her out window shopping whilst I found a bar to watch the game in – I think we all agree that that I did the right thing.

Ranieri selected a five man midfield with Veron excelling as the playmaker. For a brief moment we got a glimpse of the player Veron could be but rarely was, in particular when he opened the scoring by arriving late in the box to get on the end of an unusually good cross by Jesper Gronkjaer. Liverpool then draw level through a Michael Owen penalty which he got two cracks at because his first, missed, attempt was retaken due to Cudicini marginally straying off his line. Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, his future still subject to much speculation, replaced Gudjohnsen at half time and grabbed the winner – a goal he celebrated as if it was the golden goal in a World Cup final – as he is Dutch the truth is that this goal was more important than that.

The next day we dipped into the transfer market again and signed Alexei Smertin for £3.45m from Bordeaux. Before the ink had dried on his contract he was shipped out on loan to Portsmouth for the duration of the season. Meanwhile Inter deny reports that we are close to buying Hernan Crespo and we are linked with bids for Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Christian Chivu, Michael Salgado, Ivica Olic, Dejan Stankovic and also rekindling our interest in Emerson.

The Crespo deal is finally settled despite a threatened revolt by key players in the Inter Milan squad. The fee is agreed at £16.8m and Crespo signed a four year contract rumoured to be worth £5m a year.

Roman’s first appearance at the Bridge for a match saw us entertaining Leicester. Mutu made his debut, Hasselbaink returned to the first team and Crespo watched on from the stands. We won 2-1 with the three points secured by a wonder strike by man of the match Adrian Mutu. His initial attempt at a direct free kick was nothing to get excited about but when the ball rebounded to him off the Leicester wall he hammered it into the bottom corner from about 25 yards out. It was a strike that kick started a sensational beginning to a Chelsea career that was to be short lived and controversial. But by Christ he was great that day – we could have been forgiven for believing we had discovered the perfect replacement for Zola.

As August came to an end we secured our place in the Champions League group stages, finally clinched the key signing of Claude Makalele, brought in Neil Sullivan to provide additional goalkeeper cover and then dropped two home league points against Blackburn. The Blackburn game saw Mutu score again, Cudicini gift Blackburn their second goal, and Crespo come off the bench to make his Chelsea debut.

The transfer window then closed meaning we could finally start trying to settle down and see how the new players could blend together. The only other significant change in personnel was the appointment of Peter Kenyon who left his role as Manchester United’s Chief Executive to take up the same post at Chelsea. As Kenyon arrives, Trevor Birch heads out the exit door with a tasty £2.9m pay off. On the same day, in deepest darkest Peru, a llama fell into a deep ravine and died – Chelsea fans worldwide blamed Kenyon.

Makalele came off the bench to replace Emmanuel Petit to make his Premiership bow as we beat Tottenham 4-2 at the Bridge.

You didn’t really believe that was all I was going to say about beating Spurs did you? Spurs went ahead through Kanoute in 27 minutes but the lead only lasted eight minutes when Frank Lampard equalised at the far post by heading home Jesper Gronkjaer’s cross from the right flank. Mutu latched onto a fine through ball by Damien Duff to put us ahead and was on target again when Joe Cole’s pass carved open the Spurs defence. Kanoute hauled it back to 3-2 in the 86th minute but there was still time for Hasselbaink to tap home a fourth goal to finish off excellent work by Joe Cole who put in a cracking 45 minutes after replacing Damien Duff at half time.

Owen Hargreaves revealed that we tried to sign him but Bayern Munich rejected our advances (that is one bullet dodged!). After playing poorly away Sparta Prague in the Champions League (a game we won 1-0 courtesy of a Gallas goal) Crespo declares he is not happy with his form in the early stages of his Chelsea career and jokes that we have only seen his useless twin brother and promises we will soon see the talented twin.

The talented twin appeared as we thumped Wolves 5-0 with Crespo coming off the bench to grab a brace. Lampard also got two with Duff chipping in with our third on the day.

September and October saw our results oscillate with Ranieri reminding the world of his love of the rotation policy. In the league we beat Villa, Middlesbrough and Man City, draw 0-0 with Birmingham and lost 2-1 to Arsenal. We also lost in the Champions League to Besiktas then followed that up with a home win over Lazio. The Arsenal defeat was a bad day at the office for Carlo Cudicini who gifted Henry with the winning goal when he allowed a tame Pires cross to slip through his fingers.

At the start of November we are second in the league one point adrift of early pace setters Arsenal. Mutu can’t stop scoring as he grabs the only goal in an away win at Goodison (who we are strongly rumoured to be talking to about a £35m offer for Wayne Rooney) and we follow that with a stunning performance away in Rome as we turn over Lazio 4-0 in the Champions League.

Zola travelled from Cagliari to watch the game and is greeted with adulation by the travelling Blues. Crespo, Gudjohnsen, Duff and Lampard grab the goals although it is worth noting that Crespo is still struggling to find his best form. The game is marred when Lazio’s resident fascist Sinisa Mihajlovic takes a kick at Mutu and followed that by spitting in his face. The ref didn’t see the spitting incident but TV evidence later results in Mihajlovic serving an eight match ban. Mihajlovic was also sent off that night and throws a water bottle at the Chelsea bench whilst he is off the pitch. Big f*cking pansy!

That is followed by a 5-0 win over Newcastle, a performance inspired by Damien Duff who ran the Geordies ragged from start to finish. Melchiot then scored a rare goal to secure a 1-0 win away at Southampton and we qualified for the knock-out stages of the Champions League despite drawing 0-0 at home against Sparta Prague.

The end of November saw us entertain Man Utd at the Bridge. Cole is preferred to Duff despite Duff’s excellent run of form as Claudio opted for a diamond formation with Makelele, Lampard and Geremi being the other three. The game is decided by a disputed Frank Lampard penalty awarded for a challenge on Joe Cole by the baby eating Roy Keane. TV replays prove that Fergie’s moaning about the decision was without merit – not that we cared anyway. This result, combined with Arsenal’s draw with Fulham, means we start December top of the league.

Chelsea have a history of cocking things up just as things are starting to look good and December 2003 witnessed a mini version of this. We played five Premiership games in the month, won two, lost two and drew one with the worst being a 4-2 error strewn Boxing Day defeat away at Charlton. We were also knocked out of the League Cup by Aston Villa and the entire team, and Ranieri, had to regularly take evasive action as they were bombarded by a variety of ‘missiles’ when we won 2-0 away at Besiktas in the Champions League.

Those results, and the fact that we had dropped to third in the league and were four points adrift of Man Utd, did nothing to dampen speculation about Ranieri’s future as Chelsea manager. Speculation mounted that he would be lucky to see out the January transfer window.

After struggling to a 2-2 draw away at Watford in the FA Cup third round we entertained Liverpool at the Bridge on January 7th. Our form is patchy, Mutu hasn’t scored for over two months, the squad is again being unsettled by rumours about who we are going to sign in the January window and the buck toothed Ronaldo plans to fly in to watch the game at the Bridge (he didn’t make it as Real Madrid banned him from doing so). Not ideal preparation. We played sh*te and lost 1-0. Crespo limped off in the 12th minute, Mutu was invisible and we barely registered a decent effort on the Liverpool goal. United beat Bolton and open up a seven point gap over us in the title race.

Chelsea opened discussions with Rennes for their young and highly thought of goalkeeper Petr Cech. There would be much debate later about whether Cech was a Ranieri or Mourinho signing however the fact that we were in discussions about him as early as January should put that argument to bed. On January 21st Cech signed a five-year deal which would see him stay with Rennes until June and join us in time for 2004/05 pre-season.

Now Roma manager Fabio Capello is linked with a move to Chelsea and he doesn’t quash the rumours when he admits he would be interested.

We got back to winning ways with a 4-0 win away at Leicester with Ranieri deciding to turn to his old strike force of Hasselbaink and Gudjohnsen. Hasselbaink grabbed two, Mutu scored his first goal in 14 games and Babayaro added a rare goal to his collection.

With Veron struggling with a back injury, Petit injured and Geremi off to the African Cup of Nations, Ranieri is concerned about his options in midfield. Despite the ongoing rumours linking us with every big name under the sun it is Charlton’s Scott Parker that we target but Charlton reject our approaches.

We put Watford to bed in the FA Cup replay with another 4-0 win but struggle to a turgid 0-0 draw with Birmingham the league. During the Birmingham game there was a clash between Mutu and Birmingham’s Darren Purse which carried on after the final whistle. Mutu had to be dragged away from Purse by his team mates after the players had left the field and returned to the dressing rooms.

PSV confirmed that Chelsea are now officially ‘in the race’ to sign their young left winger Arjen Robben but we had entered the race late and Manchester United are firm favourites to secure his signature.

We struggled to a 1-0 away at Scarborough in the cup – Scarborough are 104 places below us in the league and it took a 10th minute John Terry header to separate the two teams. The result did nothing to quieten the talk that Ranieri’s rotation policy means we will never settle into consistent form.

On January 30th a deal is finally struck to sign Scott Parker for £11.25m and that turns out to be the only deal we do before the transfer window closes thus meaning the media have written a cumulative total of 368,987 sh*te headlines – nothing new there then. .

To keep in touch with the title race we could ill afford to lose many more games between February and the end of the season. We started well with a Frank Lampard inspired 3-2 win away at Blackburn (that was the first time Frank had ever scored two goals in one game for us). That was followed by a 1-0 win over Charlton (this being the game where the Charlton fans taunted Ranieri with chants of ‘You’re being sacked in the morning! Prompting Claudio to wag his finger at them and say ‘No. In May!’).

Meanwhile Kenyon’s gardening leave from United was over and he took on his post as Chief Executive. Bruce Buck was named as the new chairman of Chelsea Village plc and Ken bates became even further marginalised when he is informed that his regular slot in the next match day programme is to be replaced by an interview with Kenyon. Bates’s diminishing profile at the club, the appointment of Kenyon and the continued presence of Eriksson in and around the Bridge, or in the media spotlight, was giving Claudio less and less reason to be confident about his future as Chelsea manager.

Parker scored his first Chelsea goal to help us win 2-0 away at Portsmouth. This means we go into a double header against Arsenal on the back of three consecutive wins. We lost them both 2-1. The first, in the FA Cup 5th round, at Highbury and the second, the league game at the Bridge.

Rumours began to emerge of rifts between players. Crespo has barely played for the first team and it is ‘speculated’ that he cries off rather easily. Mutu is rumoured to be unpopular, especially amongst the English contingent in the dressing room. Makelele has a moan about the number of games he has to play. Gudjohnsen is getting tired of the rotation policy and feels the club need a settled attack partnership and there are reports of two separate ‘crisis’ meetings. One that Roman had with his ‘people’ and another informal one attended by the players.

We scraped a 1-0 win away at Stuttgart in the Champions League in a game that became famous for the fact we won without having a single shot on target in the entire 90 minutes! The only goal was a 12th minute own goal. Meanwhile the pressure on Ranieri and constant speculation about his future is beginning to make the public at large develop a soft spot for the Tinkerman with the perception being that he is trying to do a job under unbearable circumstances. Neither Roman or Kenyon are painted in a good light as they are seen as hanging their manager out to dry in the full glare of the media spotlight.

Eidur Gudjohnsen helped relieve a little pressure by scoring the only goal in a 1-0 win away at Man City; a result which sees us finish February in second spot but nine points adrift of league leaders Arsenal.

On March 1st we conclude a deal to sign Arjen Robben from PSV. Robben signed a five year deal with the deal involving him joining Chelsea in July. At the same time we handed over £7m to PSV to allow them to sign Alex from Santos. Alex is to play for PSV for two years to gain European citizenship and then he move to us for a token sum of £1. Robben’s signature doesn’t go down too well with Damien Duff who confesses that he sees it as ‘a bit of a kick in the teeth.’

The next day Ken Bates attended the Chairman’s Supper Club and takes the opportunity to resign from the club. Bates also seized the chance to have a pop at Roman, Kenyon and Bruce Buck but refused to discuss the value of any settlement he may be agreeing with the club. Bates was bitter about the way he had been sidelined and there is no denying he carried on being bitter after he left Chelsea however I will never forget how much he did for our club when we needed it most. He did it through sweat and tears and that, for me, counts for a lot more than simply opening your wallet.

Injuries caused us difficulties in midfield with Veron suffering from ongoing back problems and Petit’s knee injury restricting him to just seven appearances so far in the season.

When Stuttgart arrived for the second leg of the Champions League tie they were a team in the middle of a mini crisis. They had only won one of their past twelve games and are reported as being there for the taking. Ranieri appeared to think otherwise and played five across the midfield with Crespo as the lone striker. We limped to a 0-0 result meaning we advanced 1-0 on aggregate – truthfully we were bloody lucky as Stuttgart were much the better side at the Bridge.

Bates issued a £2m writ against us, Hasselbaink was looking to leave due a lack of first team action (despite being our top goal scorer) and Cudicini was tracked by both AC and Inter Milan who are well aware that he has been put out by the capture of Petr Cech. In early March Carlo cracked a bone in his hand and doesn’t play again until the beginning of May. Marco Ambrosio deputises between the sticks during a vital period of Premiership and Champions League fixtures. The next day the Champions League quarter final draw pitted us against London rivals and league leaders Arsenal.

The idea of Ambrosio in nets filleds Chelsea fans with as much confidence as we had in Jesper Gronkjaer being able to pick out a striker with a cross. However, on his Premiership debut, he proves us all wrong with a superb display to keep a clean sheet and help us win 2-0 away at Bolton. In truth we were poor, and very lucky to win. Exactly the same can be said about the 2-1 win over Fulham.

Eriksson is linked to Claudio’s job… again… yawn. Oh and so is Otto Hitzfield and Lippi and Ancelotti.

The build up to the Champions League tie against Arsenal reached fever pitch with few pundits giving us much chance due to a combination of our form, Arsenal’s form and the various divides within the club. The first leg was at the Bridge and the Chelsea crowd put on a public display of support for Ranieri. The game finished 1-1 with Pires cancelling out Gudjohnsen’s opener. Desailly is sent off late in the game for two bookable offences and is suspended the return leg at the Bridge.

We warmed up for the second leg by thumping Wolves 5-2 and beating Spurs 1-0 at Three Point Lane. Hasselbaink staked his case for a regular starting berth by coming off the bench to score a hat-trick in 13 second half minutes against Wolves and added to that by scoring the only goal against Spurs..

Eriksson then signed a new contract with England meaning Ranieri only had to contend with 38 other rivals for his job. Gerrard Houllier isn’t one of them – obviously!

Tuesday 6th April – Champions League Quarter Final Second Leg at ‘The Library’ – if there was ever a day that Ranieri may have come close to saving his job for at least another year this was it.

We turned our recent form on its head and were magnificent. I wouldn’t be as blinkered as to say we dominated – the Arsenal side that season was too good to be dominated however we excelled at neutralising the threat their midfield posed and both Pires and Henry were invisible. Despite that we still went in at half time 1-0 down due to a headed goal by Reyes at the very end of the opening 45. At half time Ranieri made a switch which may be the closest thing to a stroke of genius he ever pulled. Scott had been, at best, sh*te in the first half and when Arsenal did get at us it was largely due to them having too much room down their left hand side where Parker was supposed to be providing cover. We were 2-1 down on aggregate, Arsenal had the advantage of an away goal and Claudio was faced with a tough choice to decide how to plug the gap on our right hand side whilst also turning round a game we were expected to lose.

We needed a player who can attack and was also capable of stifling the natural urge of Ashley Cole to raid forward down the left flank. We didn’t need Jesper Gronkjaer. Or at least you wouldn’t have thought so. Let’s face facts, Cheryl Cole’s tackle is more impressive than Jesper’s. However that night Jesper put in 45 minutes that made his own mother wonder if he was really her child. Not only did he stretch the Arsenal back line he also made pinned Cole deep in Arsenal territory and, consequently, relieved the pressure on Melchiot who was playing at right back.

Six minutes into the second half we pulled level. Makalele volleyed a poor Edu clearance toward the Arsenal goal from just over 35 yards out and Jens ‘Worship Me!’ Lehmann made a total arse of it and dropped the ball in front of Lampard who rammed home the equaliser. The goal had the dual effect of lifting Lampard and sapping the fight out of Patrick Vieira. Frank began to dominate the centre of the park and we were denied a deserved lead when Ashley Cole cleared a Gudjohnsen shot off the line. Despite dominating the second half we still endured some heart stopping moments and in the space of a few minutes Ambrosio kept out decent efforts from Reyes and Kolo Toure.

The 87th minute brought the goal, and the celebration, and the feeling of elation that will live with every Chelsea fan that experienced it for as long as they have the mental capacity to remember their own name. Wayne Bridge raided down the left hand flank, played a swift one two with Gudjohnsen, cut into the Arsenal penalty box and swept a magnificent left foot shot into the far corner of Lehmann’s goal.

Arsenal needed to score twice in the final three minutes and that was as likely as Lee Bowyer winning an award for services to race relations. The Chelsea fans knew it, Wayne Bridge knew it and Claudio sure as hell knew it. The celebrations of all three were a joy to behold. When the final whistle blew Ranieri wept tears of joy and probably invented about 73 arm based dance routines.

Meanwhile, in Monte Carlo, Chelsea old boy Didier Deschamps masterminded another Champions League upset when his Monaco side knocked out hot favourites Real Madrid. It is Monaco that would face in the semi final.

Amazingly, in the days before and after, all this is going on Ranieri has to hold meetings with his agents to try and discover what the future holds in store for him. His touchline reaction to Bridge’s goal caused his public popularity to soar to even greater heights and the ‘behind the scene’ antics of Peter Kenyon and Roman Abramovich are being used by the media as justification for demonising them. Just two days after the win at Highbury discussions about the size of pay off deal commenced however Claudio’s agents are still getting the message from Chelsea that his fate would ultimately be decided by how well he did in the Champions League.

The following Saturday saw us back on Premiership duty and there was something of ‘after the Lord Mayor’s show’ about our drab 0-0 result against Middlesbrough. Easter Monday saw us go down 3-2 at Aston Villa and that was followed by another scoreless draw at home against Everton.

During this period a new name is emerging as the favourite to take over from Ranieri. Porto have been punching above their weight under the guidance of Jose Mourinho and so it is no great surprise that he has become one of the, if not the, hottest properties in football management. Like us, Porto are still in the Champions League and the media leapt on the possible story of the current and future Chelsea managers meeting in the final. Mourinho himself fanned the flames by admitting that he wanted the opportunity to manage a Premiership club and that he had been contacted by a number of agents representing English clubs.

If April 6th brought Ranieri a wild sense of delirium, then April 20th brought him crashing back down to Earth like a male hummingbird carrying Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink’s arse.

Damien Duff and William Gallas were not available for the Champions League first leg away in Frances so Claudio opts for a back four of Bridge, Terry, Desailly and Melchiot and plays Gronkjaer on the left hand side. Meanwhile sitting on the bench is Juan Sebastian Veron who had only managed 12 games all season and was about as fit as Jimi Hendrix was that same evening. After 17 minutes we fell behind when Dado Prso (unbelievably average striker) took advantage of hideously poor defending to get a head on a Rothen (even more average winger) free kick and put the ball beyond Ambrosio and into the top left corner of the net.

However just five minutes later Crespo scored what should have been a priceless away goal. Then, and without rhyme or reason, Claudio Ranieri walked out of the stadium and in his place we were managed by a man who looked like Claudio but managed like Danny Blanchflower. At half time he brought on Veron for Gronkjaer. Now admittedly Gronks had not been enjoying a grand performance however he could at least run - which is more than could be said for Veron.

We were now effectively playing with 10 men and boy did it show. Monaco were all over us and were denied a nailed on penalty for an off the ball incident involving Morientes gob and Desailly’s elbow! Then, out of nowhere, we manufactured a chance to save the game. I say ‘we’ – I mean Makalele and I really do mean ‘manufactured.’ After an innocuous incident in our penalty box Zikos patted Makalele on the top of his head. Maka took a gentle stroll around before taking in the view for a few seconds and then hit the deck like he had taken the full force of Biffa Bacon’s dad’s roundhouse right. Amazingly the ref bought it and sent Zikos off. Years later Steven Gerrard would still refer to this as the dive he most envied.

So there we were, playing against 10 men, with an away goal in a game we looked in grave danger of going on to lose. A sensible manger would have quietly decided the away draw was a decent result and instructed his team to play with caution and look to try and nick a winner if and when the chance presented itself. That night we didn’t have a sensible manager. I can only think that Claudio saw the chance to stick his fingers up at Roman and make the tactical decisions that would effectively win the whole tie in the first leg.

Melchiot was replaced by Hasselbaink, then Parker was replaced by Huth. Nobody had a clue who was supposed to be playing where. At one stage Crespo was on the right wing, and then Hasselbaink was playing there. Meanwhile Veron was still walking about the centre of the park looking for the ball he had lost in the 47th minute. Monaco took full advantage of the disarray and score in the 78th and 83rd minute to take a solid, but not unassailable, grip on the tie. Roman ‘invited’ Ranieri to join him on his yacht after the game to discuss what had happened. Ranieri rejected the offer and later joked that Roman wanted to use him as an anchor.

The fall out from the game is pretty widespread. Players who were previously supportive start to question Ranieri and Veron reveals that he told Claudio he wasn’t fit enough to play but was ordered to play regardless. There are also no shortage of Chelsea fans who decide they have seen enough of the incessant rotation and start to vent their frustration publicly.

Five days later any lasting hopes we had of winning the title were extinguished when we lost 2-1 away at St. James Park.

Negotiations with Mourinho were now reported to be at an advanced stage (although Deschamps was also being linked with a move to the Bridge) and Porto threatened to complain to UEFA about an illegal approach.

The second leg against Monaco on May 5th saw Jose Mourinho outside the Bridge signing autographs. Inside the Bridge Marcel Desailly and Claude Makalele were sitting in the stands as both served suspensions (Marcel was suspended based on video evidence of his wandering elbow in the first leg). Ranieri made a number of changes to the line up which saw him put his trust in pre-Roman era players. Only three of the starting eleven (Bridge, Cole and Geremi) were signed using Roman’s cheque book.

We started on fire and just before half time all was good in Chelsea world again. We were 2-0 up courtesy of a fluke by Gronkjaer and a sublime team goal finished off by Lampard.

Seconds before the break our little blue world collapsed again. Rothen (remember him? The average winger.) breezed past Melchiot far too easily and delivered a cross which Morientes headed against the cross bar. The ball bounced back, hit Ibarra’s arm and went into the net. It certainly wasn’t a deliberate hand ball but the goal was still scored by his arm and the goal should never have been allowed. Morientes put the tie beyond us when he equalised in the 60th minute. Hasselbaink was replaced by Crespo in the second half, had a tantrum, volleyed the dressing room door and subsequently left the Bridge on crutches.

We finish the season in second place after drawing away at Old Trafford and beating Leeds 1-0 at the Bridge. Signs of a team being dismantled start to emerge. Veron requests a transfer, Mutu is training with the youth team (and finally admits he has had problems getting on with certain unnamed players), Frank Lampard is still to sign a new contract, buyers are being sought for Crespo and Haselbaink and there are strong rumours that Joe Cole may be leaving.

On May 26th Mourinho lifted the European Cup as Porto comfortably beat Monaco and within five days Ranieri was sacked and Jose agreed on a contract with us making him the highest paid manager in domestic football. During the contract negotiations Jose had named the Porto players he wanted to bring with him and they were Deco, Paulo Ferreira, and Costinha.

Interestingly before Claudio was sacked he had discussions with Roman about players he would want to bring in to strengthen our squad the following season. He said we needed three players; a defender, central midfielder and a striker. The names he mentioned were Steven Gerrard, Walter Samuel and one from Morientes, Eto’o or Didier Drogba.

Melchiot, Petit, Stanic and Bogarde were all released as their contracts had expired whilst Hasselbaink and Desailly, who both had a year left on their contracts, were informed that they would be released if buyers could not be found.

The capture of Mourinho wasn’t officially announced until June 1st and he was unveiled at a press conference the next day.

2004/05 AND 2005/06 SEASONS OUTSTANDING