Sorry to say I’m hearing that Bobby has passed away. He lived in the same village as my parents in Cork and was hugely admired as is the family.

He not only managed Cork City but also our village team to their only FAI senior cup final appearance.

Rest in peace

RIP, Legend

RIP Legend.

R.I.P. Bobby, a legend and a gentleman.

I'm sure @Gem will never forget this:

R.I.P Bobby.

RIP Bobby, legend

Very sad news. RIP Bobby. A legend.

Bobby Tambling 1941-2026

Chelsea Football Club has very sadly lost one of our most legendary players with the passing of Bobby Tambling at the age of 84.

Tambling was one of the great goalscorers, the holder of the record for the most Chelsea goals for 45 years until his 202 were overtaken by Frank Lampard in 2013.

He was also part of a fashionable and exciting Chelsea team, a significant proportion of it homegrown, and he was a cup winner, helping the Blues to our first knockout trophy triumph, the League Cup in 1965.
Tambling’s was a Chelsea career that neatly spanned that 1960s decade.

Born in Hayling Island, just off the south coast, he was a proud product of a highly fruitful Chelsea youth system under the tutelage of Dickie Foss with many future first-team colleagues growing up together. Tambling was a prodigious scorer for the juniors from the age of 15 and was handed his first-team debut at just 17. The match was a London derby in front of 53,000 spectators inside Stamford Bridge with West Ham the opponents.

Another 17-year-old who would develop into a top Chelsea striker, Barry Bridges, also took his first-team bow that February day in 1959 and both found the net as the Hammers were beaten 3-2, Jimmy Greaves who was only 18 himself scoring the other. Goal no.1 of Tambling’s 202 had taken just 14 minutes from kick-off to score; both he and Bridges, who were in digs together, excitedly rushed to the local newsagents first thing in the morning to buy a copy of every newspaper.

Tambling (right) and Bridges leading the Chelsea attack in their early years

Despite the auspicious start, manager Ted Drake did not select the young prospect again that season and he only played four games the following season, scoring once, his first goal away from the Bridge at Birmingham. He was part of the side that won the FA Youth Cup for the first time for Chelsea in 1960, scoring a hat-trick in the second leg against Preston.

It was from late October in the 1960/61 season that Tambling became established in the team, scoring 12 goals in 28 games which was a healthy total although one that suffered in comparison with Greaves’s still-standing club-record 43 goals from 43 games in what was his final season in blue.

To Tambling fell the unenviable task of filling the hole left by Italy-bound Greaves – or, as he later put it with typical self-deprecation, replacing the Rolls-Royce with an old banger! Previously he had often been played on the wing but a strike partnership with Bridges who played more as the centre-forward with Tambling an inside-forward, yielded 39 league goals in the 1961/62 season, 20 of them Tambling’s including his first hat-trick, at home to Sheffield United, but they were not enough to prevent relegation from the top flight.

There was a new, youthful Chelsea side emerging under the stewardship of Tommy Docherty however and they bounced straight back the following season, Tambling netting 35 goals in just 40 league games. Included in that was a remarkable run of 12 in six consecutive Division Two games, which is a scoring sequence bettered only three times in the club’s history.

He scored four in a game twice, away at Charlton and at home to Portsmouth in a 7-0 win in the final game to seal promotion. Tambling was captain of the side too, the youngest to win promotion in the whole Football League at that time.

Shaking hands with his Portsmouth counterpart in the final game of the promotion-winning season

He was again the team’s top scorer in the first season back in Division One, this time recording a four-goal haul at Highbury. He was always prolific away from home and enjoyed a good record against the Gunners, as did the whole team in the ‘60s. Indeed, Aston Villa were the only opponent he netted against more often than Arsenal, who conceded 10 times to Tambling. He was on the losing side only once in his 13 matches against them.

At 5ft 8½in, Tambling was not a tall striker but there was plenty of pace in his hunched running style. His sprints with the ball directly towards goal followed by pin-point left-foot shooting, often getting the ball to bounce before the keeper, were the manner in which he scored many of his goals. He could find the target with his right foot too.

One of those Arsenal goals

The 1964/65 season was one of high achievement and silverware for Chelsea, although Tambling would fall behind Bridges and new arrival George Graham in the scoring chart. Less often playing down the centre now, he instead operated on the left of a three-man attack but still heading for goal whenever he could, he netted 15 goals in a league campaign that ended with the team third in the table. The campaign stumbled at the very end with a famous curfew-breaking incident in Blackpool that resulted in Docherty sending seven players home before a game. Tambling was not one of them. In a flamboyant era for the club and west London in general, he was one of the quiet ones, and as anyone who met him will testify, a genuinely nice man.

Six Tambling goals came in seven League Cup games that campaign as Chelsea won our first knockout trophy. One was in the first leg of the final against Leicester. It was to be his one winners’ medal.

Scoring crucially past Leicester's Gordon Banks

A new striker was emerging at Chelsea - Peter Osgood - and although Bridges was the one who came under more pressure for his place in the side from the teenager from Windsor as Tambling was able to operate as a left winger, the crowd had a new goal-scoring idol and for a while there was even friendly rivalry between the Tambling and Osgood fans in the Shed.

During the 1965/66 season Tambling scored away to Liverpool in a third-round FA Cup tie. It was to be over quarter-of-a-century before Chelsea won at Anfield again. However for the second season running, the semi-final was a hurdle too high and in the closing weeks, Tambling, along with goalkeeper Peter Bonetti put in transfer requests as Bridges and Terry Venables moved on.

His departure did not materialise and in 1966/67 Chelsea finally did make it to Wembley, Tambling scoring five times on the way to the first ‘Cockney Cup Final’ with Tottenham the opposition. Earlier that season he had become the club’s new all-time leading scorer, surpassing Roy Bentley’s tally of 150, with a penalty against Spurs, but his only FA Cup final appearance was one of disappointment although he did find the net late on when he headed in after Spurs’ keeper Pat Jennings had failed to punch a cross away. In doing so he became our first peace-time goalscorer at Wembley as a poor Chelsea display ended in a 2-1 defeat.

Among Tambling’s 21 league goals that season were five scored on one afternoon away to Aston Villa in a 6-2 win. Injury with almost half an hour to go denied him the chance of equalling George Hilsdon’s Chelsea record double hat-trick in the FA Cup in 1908. Five goals in one league game remains a club record he shares.

Tambling won a fans' vote to be added to the Shed Wall at Stamford Bridge in 2019

Docherty was replaced as manager by Dave Sexton who had been a coach at Chelsea earlier in the decade. Before he departed ‘The Doc’ had part-exchanged Graham for another striker, Tommy Baldwin, and Sexton bought Alan Birchenall from Sheffield United as Osgood recovered from a broken leg. There was keen competition for places up front in the ‘67/’68 and ‘68/’69 seasons.

Tambling spent time out with injury but although his pace might have reduced a little, he still netted double-figure totals each campaign and was top scorer with 19 goals in the ‘68/’69 campaign including another four-goal haul, this time at home to Sunderland. It was the last of his eight hat-tricks for the Blues, a record bettered only by Jimmy Greaves and George Hilsdon. Goal no.202 came at home to Burnley in April 1969. He had not yet turned 29.

Leaving Leeds in his wake in 1967

The famous 1969/70 season that ended with Chelsea’s first FA Cup win also brought the curtain down on Tambling’s Chelsea career. Another Sexton signing, Ian Hutchinson would forge a formidable forward partnership with Osgood and Tambling fell out the team after the first four games due to injury.

He moved on loan to Crystal Palace in January 1970, looking to regain full fitness and get back among the goals, but upon returning to Chelsea he would make only three further appearances in the weeks leading up to the FA Cup final, the last of which was curtailed after 37 minutes as he suffered another injury.

After 370 Chelsea appearances he left that summer for Palace, this time on a permanent deal for £40,000. The 202 goals he had netted were 52 more than the total scored by Roy Bentley who at that time was the second all-time highest scorer. Although Tambling’s club record tally was eventually surpassed by Frank Lampard, no one has scored more league goals for the club than his 164. He chalked up eight hat-tricks, netted four in a game four times and five goals once.

Tambling won three England caps, scoring one goal, having been a more regular choice for his nation at Under-23 level. That solitary strike, against France, was chosen by Tambling as his favourite in a list he put together in his autobiography.

Bobby (on the right of the photo) winning an England cap versus Wales, with Jimmy Greaves inside him

The club held a dinner for fans and former players at Stamford Bridge in February 2004 to mark Tambling’s special place in Chelsea hearts and although he spent his later years in Cork having played for three clubs in Ireland after leaving Crystal Palace, he returned to Stamford Bridge to see matches most seasons.

The visits became more frequent when he joined the group of legends hosting fans in the hospitality areas on a matchday, and he could often be found in the hotel bar before games, enjoying a coffee and a chat with supporters of all ages.

He embraced these occasions even more after a near three-year battle for his life, spending much of his time in hospital before doctors finally diagnosed the Martorell leg ulcer. It was during this time he began penning his life story, which eventually became an autobiography in 2016: Goals in Life.

Frank Lampard, the man who surpassed Bobby’s goalscoring record at Chelsea shortly after he was released from hospital in the spring of 2013, fittingly wrote the foreword of the book. Among his lengthy tribute to a man he formed a firm friendship with was the passage: ‘Bobby is a gentleman of football and Chelsea Football Club. If you want an ambassador, someone who shows what the club means and who transcends the generations, he is the man. It’s an absolute privilege to call you my mate.’

Those sentiments would be uttered by any Chelsea fan who came across Tambling, who was forever passionate about the club where his name is written very large in our history.

Chelsea Football Club sends our deepest condolences to Bobby’s wife Val, the rest of his family and his friends at this difficult time.

I do indeed @PloKoon13

Here is the card in question, for those interested. If you're still about but don't want your message shown then tough, it's my picture.

I still remember meeting him, how lovely he & his wife was and the reaction he got at HT when introduced to the crowd.

Rest in peace Bobby, a true legend.

Sad news. A giant of our past, whose memory will be treasured.

RIP Bobby. Thank you for all you did for our great club. Legend.

Very sad news RIP Bobby and thanks for the fantastic memories.

Had the privilege of watching the great man many times and was one of the names on the team sheet on my first ever visit to the bridge in 1967 to watch us draw 1-1 against Coventry City.

Too young to see him play, but you can't help but notice the impact the guy made. R.I.P

RIP Bobby. A Chelsea legend.

Very sad news indeed.

R.I.P. to a real Chelsea Legend.

Sad news. A Chelsea legend.

Bobby Tambling R.I.P

Great card @Gem

I met him in 2019, he sat at my table after the match, talking about the old days and pushing salt and pepper shakers around to explain tactics. Lovely man, who gave his time freely to the supporters.

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by Valerie

This is a beautifully written tribute to Bobby, and if you can take the time to read it will understand just how loved, respected and admired he was in the local community. I take no credit for it, it’s from the Crosshaven AFC page…..

It is with the heaviest of hearts that Crosshaven AFC announce the passing of our dear friend and former manager, Bobby Tambling — a true Chelsea legend and an even more wonderful human being.

Bobby came to Cork in the 1970s after his time at Crystal Palace, and he fell deeply in love with the place. But it was Crosshaven that truly captured his heart. In the 1980s he settled here and made it his home. He became Cork City’s very first manager before taking the reins of our senior team in 1985, guiding us with pride and passion to our one and only appearance in the FAI Senior Cup the following year. His sons Gary and Glenn featured locally for a while as did his partner Val’s son Jamie now of course Senior Team assistant coach.

For the next thirty years, on and off, Bobby was never far from our club with Val by his side. Even when his health was failing, he still wanted to be on the sidelines — coaching, encouraging, and sharing his endless love for the game. His passion for football was absolutely infectious. Whether he was talking tactics, working on set pieces, or telling stories from his playing days (sometimes for the tenth time), you couldn’t help but hang on every word. You didn’t mind hearing the same tale again, because it was Bobby telling it. His final game managing Crosshaven was a fitting one as some of the greatest local players he ever coached took on a Republic of Ireland Masters team in 2015 that included Packie Bonner, Ronnie Whelan & Ray Houghton in Camden.

Crosshaven players adored him. They respected him, responded to him, and would have run through brick walls for him. From time to time, old friends from his Chelsea days would visit — Barry Bridges, Chopper Harris, Paddy Mulligan and others — reminding us all of the giant he was in the game.

In London, Bobby was a superstar. 202 goals for his beloved Chelsea — a record that stood for decades until Frank Lampard came along. He loved returning to the Bridge, where he was worshipped. Seeing his “Tambling 202” banner proudly displayed and having a suite named in his honour always filled him with quiet pride. He cherished hearing the fans sing his name one more time and feeling the electric buzz of match day, which brought back so many beautiful memories of victories, friendships, and goals.

But no matter how much he loved Chelsea, Crosshaven was always home with his beloved Val. Walking the dogs, enjoying dinners with family and friends, having a flutter at the bookies, and being part of the local football community — these were the simple things that made him happiest.

Bobby leaves an enormous hole in all our lives. We are all better, kinder, and richer for having known him. His warmth, his wisdom, his humour and his love will stay with us forever.

To his loving family, his close friends, and his adoring Chelsea family — we send our deepest, most heartfelt condolences. We have all lost a true legend, and a very special man.

To Valerie, despite his battle with Alzheimer’s, I clearly remember Bobby in a moment of clarity saying “she’s the best, I’d be lost without her” you cried but he was right. The dedication you showed to him was absolutely incredible.

Rest in peace, Bobby. You will never be forgotten.

Not sure about the new tattoo Val, seems over the top.