Chelsea in America members: Check your email for a chance to enter and win one of these four Chelsea history books to bone up on your CFC knowledge. 15 lucky winners to be selected.
Deadline to enter is final whistle v Man United on October 22nd.
Learn more about each book (and click on pick to order if you're impatient or unlucky):
Chelsea’s unexpected Champions League triumph over Manchester City in May 2021 left supporters of the London club suspended in a state of excitement over the summer months as they contemplated the possibilities the campaign ahead might provide and season ticket holder Chris Wright was no exception. Having endured the harsh restrictions of the pandemic, like all match-going fans, Chris was looking forward to going to games again, walking down the Fulham Road towards Stamford Bridge, savouring the atmosphere and perhaps most of all taking his son Jack to watch the mighty Blues for the first time.
In chronological order, Chelsea would be contesting six trophies; the UEFA Super Cup, Premier League, Champions League, League Cup, F.A Cup and FIFA Club World Cup. It looked a tall order to win them all, but manager Thomas Tuchel had the right minerals and owner Roman Abramovich had splashed the cash on striker Romelu Lukaku, a club record signing at £97.5 million, so maybe, just maybe the sweep would be clean. The new season got off to a cracking start. Chelsea won the Super Cup and come the beginning of December were top of the Premier League and on track to haul all the silverware they were competing for. Fantastic! What could possibly go wrong?
‘End Of An Era’ is Chris Wright’s personal account of a campaign that unravelled in an unprecedented way as hope and glory were rapidly replaced by doom and gloom when Abramovich was sanctioned by the UK government in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Chelsea were put up for sale. Turn the pages and relive the extraordinary drama and reversals of expectation both on and off the pitch that toyed with emotions and frayed nerves. Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction especially when the Blues are centre stage!
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The 1969-70 season was momentous for Chelsea… a campaign that concludes with the Club winning the FA Cup for the first time in its history. It is also a period of awakening for Blues supporter Tommy Walker, a local boy from the World’s End whose passion for the team is matched by his love of music and Sophia Fossati, a girl he meets at the Isle of Wight Festival
Almost fifty years later, Tommy’s health is failing fast and he asks his friend, author Mark Worrall, to write his memoirs. 'Liquidator' sets out Mark’s struggle to come to terms with Tommy’s situation and outlines how their friendship developed before focussing itself on Chelsea’s journey to FA Cup glory with match descriptions so vivid you feel you are at the games cheering on Peter Osgood as he scores in every round of the competition!
Granular details of Tommy’s early life provide a fascinating snapshot of what following the Blues was like, both in the mid-1950s when he first sees Chelsea play at Stamford Bridge, and then later as he attends every match of the 1970 cup run, that culminates in a tempestuous and ultimately triumphant final replay against Leeds United.
Vibrant, larger-than-life characters fill the pages as Tommy and his friends weave and bob around London, mingling with Chelsea players and rock stars in long-lost pubs and clubs at a time when man first walked on the moon and 'The Liquidator', a reggae-tinged instrumental with an infernally catchy beat, wormed its way into the consciousness of Blues supporters. The recurring theme of how quickly time passes is never far away as is the yearning for days gone by and those who left this life too early.
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It's often said that you don't choose your football club, it chooses you. That was certainly the case for Kelvin Barker, who's Chelsea-mad father stood him on the Stamford Bridge terraces for the first time when he was just five years old. Chelsea found Kelvin that day, and they've been a constant companion ever since.
December 2020 marked fifty years since Kelvin made that first appearance in what would eventually become his second home. On the very day that marked his half-century, Chelsea played Leeds United. Fifty years earlier, the Blues had triumphed over the Yorkshire side to win their first FA Cup, and were holders of that trophy as Kelvin's own football journey began. Five months after he marked his anniversary, the pride of London would lift the Champions League trophy for the second time in nine years. However, what happened in the years between these momentous occasions was sometimes turbulent, tough to navigate and unexpected. A bit like life.
When the Covid-19 pandemic struck in early-2020 and Kelvin found himself with more time on his hands than ever before, he got to thinking about his impending milestone and how Chelsea Football Club had been one of the few constants in his life. He literally couldn't remember a time without them. Friends, family members and partners have come and gone, much like his hair, but Chelsea has remained at his side throughout. And it struck Kelvin that so many of his major life events have become entwined with his own football memories. Being in a pandemic, it gave him time to write a book about it.
Chelsea haven't always made him happy, they have sometimes reduced him to tears, but as summer begins to turn to autumn in the relationship, Kelvin has decided that, just like his life, it all turned out nicely in the end.
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Jason Gibbins attended his first Chelsea game on January 1, 1980, an eventful 3-3 Division Two clash at Luton Town that kicked-off at 11am. And, yes, it continues to annoy him greatly that he missed out on watching Chelsea in the '70s by a meagre 11 hours. But the six-year-old boy that was taken to see the Blues at Kenilworth Road on that frosty morning was already a fan, being, as he is, the son of a Chelsea supporter who first visited Stamford Bridge in the 1950s.
Following that first match Jason followed Chelsea throughout the 1980s in the company of his dad before, by 1990, he was ready to go it alone opening up new opportunities for fun, adventure, failed encounters with the opposite sex, and near arrests.
Engagingly written and laced with wry wit and pathos, 'For Better Or Worse' follows two paths as it tells the story of life, love and Chelsea in the '90s. Two roller coaster rides for the price of one! The first tracks each full season of the decade as the London club progress from mid-table mediocrity to a team competing on the European stage. The second, meanwhile, focuses game-by-game on the progression of the Blues 1997 FA Cup campaign; a campaign of additional significance for Jason thanks to a rash promise to propose should his beloved team win the trophy.
"It has been 27 years since we last won it," Jason said at the time, "so the odds are stacked in my favour."
Jason Gibbins is a journalist. But don't hold that against him.
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