Chelsea

Kit History

1905-1909 a i n

1910-1915 a i n

1918-1927 m

1934-1935 g

1936-1946 g

1946-1947 h

1947-1948 h

1948-1949 e h

1951-1952 f

1952-1954 a h

1954-1955 m n

1955-1957 h o

1957-1959 h

1959-1960 h

1960-1961 b h

1961-1962 c h

1962-1964 c h m

1964-1966 h

1966-1967 d f h

1967-1968 m

1968-1970 d f h

1970-1971 h

1971-1973 d h

1973-1974 h

Umbro

1975-1978 d h

Umbro

1978-1981 d h

Le Coq Sportif

1981-1983 c

Le Coq Sportif

1983-1984 d

Le Coq Sportif

1984-1985 d

Le Coq Sportif

1985-1986 d

Chelsea Collection

1986-1987 d j k

Worn plain or with one of three sponsors' logos

Umbro

1987-1989 d l

Umbro

1989-1991 d l

Umbro

1991-1993 d

Umbro

1993-1994 d l

Umbro

1994-1995 d l

Umbro

1995-1997 d

Umbro

1997-1999 d

Umbro

1999-2001 d

Umbro

2001-2003 c

Umbro

2003-2005 c

Umbro

2005-2006 c

adidas

2006-2007 c

2008-2009 c

Background

The Chelsea Miscellany
By Clive Batty
Foreword by Ron 'Chopper' Harris

ISBN: 1905326319
~~£6.49~~ £5.99 (with promotional code KITS1)

Buy from Vision Sports Publishing

Chelsea joined the League before they had played a single game - an achievement they share with Bradford City. The club came into being at the behest of a builder, Gus Mears and his brother who aquired the site of the Stamford Bridge Athletic ground and a neighbouring market garden with a view to building a football stadium. The plan lay fallow for a while until the Great Western Railway Company approached the brothers to buy the land for marshalling yards. Rather than sell their asset, the Mears brothers raised the money they needed to build the second largest stadium in England after Crystal Palace and called it Stamford Bridge. When Fulham FC declined an invitation to move in because the annual £1,500 rent was too high, the brothers simply went ahead and formed their own club, Chelsea FC, adopting the light blue racing colours of Lord Chelsea. After an approach to join the Southern League was snubbed following objections from Spurs and Fulham, Chelsea successfuly applied to join the Second Division of the Football League.

Immediately the club was nicknamed "The Pensioners" because of the association with the war veterans in their famous red uniforms known as the Chelsea Pensioners. After finishing third in their first season, Chelsea was promoted to Division One for the first time in 1907, their second season. They made little impression, however, and spent most of the Twenties in Division Two. The club flirted with success but never fulfilled their potential. The club has always enjoyed the patronage of celebrity supporters because of its fashionable location and proximity to the West End. Many star players graced the team in the inter-war years but nevertheless, they became a music hall joke with a reputation as the proverbial "nearly team."

In 1955 a workmanlike team managed by Ted Drake broke the mould when Chelsea won the League Championship for the first time. In 1961, Chelsea were relegated to Division Two but bounced back the following season to embark on their most successful period to date. The now famous all-blue kit with white stockings was introduced in 1964 although there is evidence that an earlier version was made up in 1962 but rejected as being too radical a change at the time. Chelsea were, incidentally, the first team to play in Division One with numbers on their shorts.

Throughout the Sixties Chelsea rode high in the League and started to collect cup trophies: the League cup in 1964 was followed by the FA Cup (1970) and the European Cup-Winners' Cup (1971). In 1975 Chelsea were relegated to Division Two and although they returned four seasons later, in 1979 they went down again.

After languishing in Division Two for five seasons, Chelsea were promoted as champions in 1984. After two promising seasons, they went down once more but won the Second Division championship the following season and they have remained in the top flight ever since. In 1994, Chelsea reached the FA Cup final once again but lost heavily to Manchester United. Chelsea won the FA Cup in 1997, the League Cup in 1998 and the FA Cup once again in 2000. League performances also improved as a succession of high profile managers recruited top foreign stars under the determined and controversial leadership of Ken Bates, who bought the club earlier in the decade.

In 2003, Bates sold the club to Roman Abramovich, a Russian oligarch reputed to be worth between £1.8bn and £3.8bn. While the origins of Abramovich's wealth may be obscure, there was no doubt about his intentions as over the next few years he poured huge amounts of cash into the club to enable them to sign some of the world's leading players. Indeed, at a time when the global transfer market was in recession, Abramovich's millions bucked the trend, propelling the one time music hall joke into the elite of European football. After the appointment of the charismatic Portuguese manager, Jose Mourinho, Chelsea won the first of back-to-back Premier League titles in 2005, exactly 50 years after their first League title, followed by the FA Cup in 2007.

The following September, after persistent stories in the media concerning Mourinho's relationship with Abramovich, the "Special One" departed and his place was taken by Avram Grant, the Director of Football for the Israeli Football Association. In his first season in charge, Grant steered his expensive team (it was reported that Abramovich's investment amounted to around £750 million in interest-free loans) to within an ace of winning a fabulous double. They finished as runners-up to Manchester United after going into the last round of Premier league matches level on points. Ten days later Chelsea and United clashed again in the UEFA Champions League final, United eventually winning on penalties. These results cost Grant his job.

Historical Football Kits

Kit History

Background

Sources