Chelsea as a club has grown leaps and bounds in the past few years especially since the arrival of Roman Abramovich. However, the success has come not just because of one man. It’s down to a lot of people right from the players, the managers to the coaching staff but then there are always some who are cut above the rest. Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba are surely two among the later. To win matches in football you have to score goals and surely these two names must be on the top of anyone’s mind when you are looking for goals. Take away the two men and you take away nearly half of the goals. Take away half of the goals and you take away half of the wins that too some really important ones. It’s really simple, it really is.
Just shifting the topic a little bit towards history for a moment and I know the Scousers if they are reading would jump straight away with ‘You’ve got no history’ chants but anyways who gives a fuck about them these days. When we talk about history, it is not always the past glories and triumphs that we should look for. There are a lot of other things, glories apart, you can take a cue from. History teaches you lessons, lessons which may not be exactly valid in the context of today nowithstanding there is always something to look at.
Step back to the 60’s when Chelsea were the most glamorous team in the country and though were not exactly as dominating like today but were known for their stylish brand of football. It was probably the most successful era in Chelsea’s history up until the late 90’s when Gullit and his ’sexy football’ took over Stamford Bridge. Some truly great players graced the hallowed turf during this decade and the League Cup, the FA Cup and the Cup Winners Cup were brought home for the first time in more than 60 years. It was a magical era indeed.
Just like today when we have an array of superstars at the club even back then there were players who were real icons of that era. Peter Osgood and Alan Hudson were two pivotal figures in this Chelsea team. Osgood, the goalscoring striker, and Hudson, the main man in the midfield. Got my drift! Both Osgood and Hudson came from the youth ranks at Chelsea, Osgood a bit earlier during the reign of Tommy Docherty while Hudson, born a stone’s throw away from Stamford Bridge, was blooded in the first team by Dave Sexton who succeeded the Doc.
Hudson and Osgood were a big part of the team that went onto win the FA Cup beating Leeds in the epic final which went to a replay and then a year later conquered Europe in Athens beating Real Madrid in Cup Winners Cup which incidentally too went to a replay. The club might not have finished above the 3rd place in the league during there time but there was something special about this group of players. The honeymoon didn’t last for too long though. After the 1972 season in which we got to the finals of League Cup, Chelsea went on a decline and the league position deteriorated. The club was crippling under the debt which came with the building of the East Stand and it forced the sale of a number of players. During this time both Osgood and Hudson fell out with the then manager Dave Sexton and were put on the transfer list consequently. Southampton snapped up Osgood within months of being put on the list while Stoke spent little time in paying 240,000 pounds for Hudson. The heart of the team was gone. The club went down a year later which was the start of a turbulent period in Chelsea’s history when we went up and down the divisions, finally returning back to the top flight in 1989 where we have remained since then. The supporters at that time wouldn’t have known that after the League Cup Final of 1972 it would take the club another 22 long years to reach another cup final (barring the Full Members Cup Finals ) where we were beaten 4-0 by Manchester United. For them the defeat was painful but it didn’t really mattered because they knew that Chelsea was once again back where it rightly belonged. Peter Osgood and Alan Hudson did return back to Chelsea like prodigal sons but they could never replicate the form they showed in the swinging sixties.
Coming back to today, things have changed in a way we could never have imagined before. Chelsea is in a very strong position under the ownership of Roman and even if he decides to leave us someday we would be attractive enough for another prospective buyer. We are in a position now to buy the best players in the world, pay them the best wages and give them the best conditions to train in. Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba have been an integral part of our success over the last few years but they are likely to leave this summer. The conditions and circumstances surrounding their transfer are a lot different then the ones during the times of Osgood and Hudson but no one can deny the fact that Lampard and Drogba are as important to our team as Osgood and Hudson were back then.
It is highly unlikely that we may win nought for the next couple of years and go on a downward spiral from here on but then stranger things have happened. It might not be a long wait for another 22 years but going by today’s standards and the skyrocketing expectations of the fans, a two year wait might be too much for some. I am hoping against hope for their stay but at the same time I am prepared to resign myself to fate. However, one thing which I don’t want is to return back to this post a few years down the line and curse the history books because they gave us the cue but we ignored.
