Ted Drake, an Arsenal legend from his time with the Gunners in the 1930’s, was appointed to manager of Chelsea Football Club in 1952. He became known as the first of the “tracksuit managers” who would shake his players hands and wish them luck before every game.  These days, there would be uproar for someone associated with the clubs rivals Arsenal to take any role at Chelsea, let alone manager. However back then, Chelsea were such a mediocre club that this rivalry didn’t yet exist. While both clubs were literally in the same league, figureitively this wasn’t the case at all. In fact, in every season between World War II and 1955, Chelsea had found themselves in various unenviable positions on the table from 8th at their best to dead last at their worst. Even with Drake’s appointment, the 1954/55 campaign was expected to be more of the same for The Pensioners as they were then nicknamed – long, ardous and in the end, uninspiring.

 

But this was the Golden Jubilee of Chelsea’s foundation, and the club had something special in store for their long-suffering but loyal supporters to help celebrate the milestone. Drake urged them to get more behind the team, and his first moves were to start modernising the club through a series of sweeping changes. He got rid of Chelsea’s Pensioner crest, to be replaced by the lion rampant regardant. He then insisted on a new nickname for the club. No longer would they be referred to as “The Penioners”. From now on, they would be called “The Blues”. He brought scouting reports to the club, which were unheard of at the time, and began a new, tougher training routine based mainly on ballwork which in those days was a rarity in English football. The clubs old policy of signing unreliable, crusty big-name has-beens was binned. Instead, Drake tapped into his knowledge of the lower and amateur leagues to bring in unknown but reliable talent such as McNichol, Blunstone, Saunders and Lewis. Future England manager Ron Greenwood patrolled the midfield, and Armstrong, Willemse and veteran Harris solidified the defence. Over the next couple of years, Drake continued to build and improve the team, but even still, the last thing anyone expected was for them to win the English First Division title, especially by denying the top spot to a phenomenal Wolverhampton outfit. But, that’s exactly what happened. 

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The season started in the usual manner for Chelsea, with a promising first month and strong wins over Burnley and Bolton, but by October Chelsea had lost to Preston North End and dropped points all over the place including a thrilling 5-6 defeat by Manchester United, ending up lagging in 12th place. By some kind of miracle however, The Blues turned their season around starting in December. Captain Bentley and fellow striker McNichol suddenly remembered how to score goals and smashed 12 in by Christmas, setting up for a 5-2 drumming of Bolton on Boxing Day. The change of fortunes continued with wins over Newcastle, Sunderland and West Bromwich propelling Chelsea to the top of the league. Chelsea’s run was remarkable and saw them lose only 3 of the following 25 games. One of these was an incredible 4-3 win at Molineux, the home of the outstanding Wolverhampton team of the day, after trailing 2-3 at the start of stoppage time.  All of their efforts boiled down to the return game, on the 9th of April against the defending champions and currently 2nd placed Wolverhampton Wanderers at Stamford Bridge. This match was essentially the title decider, and Chelsea came out on top with a narrow 1-0 win thanks to a Sillet penalty that basically secured them the title. Their total points of 52 at the end of the season, remains one of the lowest to secure the trophy since World War I. 

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This victory qualified the team for the first ever European Cup that was held the following season, in which they would have been the first English team to participate. However, Chelsea were forced to withdraw because the Football League and FA felt that priority should be given to the domestic game. 

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Chelsea were unable to build on this success. The team was aging, and many of their players retired or were sold off and with a succession of underwhelming mid-table finishes in the following years, they reverted to the Chelsea of old until the early 1960’s when they came bursting back to life.

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The Chelsea that Ted Drake had inherited was an under-performing, lucklustre, ragtag team that prior to his arrival had achieved practically nothing. Just the idea of keeping them in the First Division was highly unlikely. The idea of winning the title was completely laughable. But by restructuring the club from the ground up, Drake moulded Chelsea into a team that could take on the toughest opponents and achieve the seemingly impossible. From legendary Arsenal goal machine to managerial mastermind of Chelsea, Ted Drake is probably, to this day, the only person loved by both the red and blue sides of London.

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Star player: Roy Bentley, dob 17 May 1924, pob Bristol, England

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Roy Bentley was the only true star player on this Chelsea team. The clubs captain, he was signed from Newcastle for £12,500 in 1948 and went on to become the hero of The Blues’ 1954/55 campaign. With a strong aerial presence and a powerful shot, he was one of the world’s first deep-lying centre forwards, something which confounded opposing defenders.  A native of Bristol, Bentley served in the Royal Navy during World War II and played for both Bristol City and Bristol Rovers. At Newcastle, he was part of a strike force that included the likes of Jackie Milburn and Len Shackleton. He replaced Tommy Lawton at Chelsea but struggled in his initial games and received unfavourable comparisons to his predecessor as he adjusted to their unfamiliar style of play. However, his change of fortunes reflected those of his club, and in his first full season in London he became Chelsea’s top scorer and received his first England call up. He helped Chelsea through their first serious FA Cup run in two decades when they were knocked out in the semi-finals by Arsenal in 1950, and he played for the London XI in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup. That year, he also played in the World Cup in Brazil, including Englands infamous loss to the United States.In the British Home Championship, Bentley scored the winning goal against Scotland. Even though England and Scotland were both guaranteed a spot in Brazil as the top two finishers of the Home Championship, the Scottish FA stated that they would withdraw from the World Cup if they did not win. Thanks to Bentley’s goal, Scotland finished second in the Home Championship and Bentley was christened as “The Man Who Robbed Scotland of Rio”. He hit the net 21 times in Chelsea’s 1954/55 title winning season and spent the rest of his career in London with Fulham and Queens Park Rangers. After his playing days, he moved into management and today, he lives in Reading. At 85, he is the only surviving player of England’s 1950 World Cup squad.