10 CHELSEA PLAYERS WITH THE HIGHEST APPEARANCES FOR THE CLUB

IO CHELSEA PLAYERS WITH THE HIGHEST APPEARANCES FOR THE CLUB .
PART 2;
The next player i am going to talk about is PETER PHILIP BONETTI.He is the second player with the highest appearances for Chelsea football club.
Bonetti was born in London on 27th September 1941. He was a goal keeper. He made 729 appearances for the the club. Chelsea signed him from the Reading youth team by the then manager Ted Drake. He helped the Chelsea youth side win the FA YOUTH CUP in 1960, few weeks after he had made his first team appearance. From 1960 he became the club first team keeper, a position he held for nineteen years.
In Bonettis's second season as a Chelsea player, they were relegated after which Tommy Docherty was appointed as the new manager . Bonetti established himself as a key figure in Docherty's talented young side that helped the club gained promotion back into the first Division. They challenged for honours throughout the decade, and endured several near misses. They were heading for a treble of League, FA CUP and League cup in 1965 but, a late slip in form saw them beaten by Liverpool in the FA CUP and their tittle challenge ended with a few games left. They ended the season winning only the League cup.
The following season Bonetti put in an impressive displays against the likes of AS Roma, AC Milan, and FC Barcelona in Chelsea's Fairs cup, although they were knocked out of the competition in the semi-finals. At the end of that season another keeper, ALEX STEPNEY was signed. Alex briefly threatened Bonetti's position as the club's choice keeper that he(Bonetti), considered putting in a transfer request. Alex was sold to Manchester United few months later after having made only one appearance for the club.
In 1967, they eventually reached the FA CUP final where they lost to Tottenham Hotspur in a match that Bonetti could do little to stop Spurs from winning. Dave Sexton replaced Docherty as the manager and led Chelsea to another FA CUP final in 1970, this time against the reigning champions Leeds United. Bonetti had what was perhaps the finest moment of his playing career in the two fiercely contested games where he put in a series of impressive displays especially in the second leg where he denied both Peter Lorimer and Terry Cooper from scoring after Chelsea had taken a 2-1 lead. Chelsea held on to their 2-1 lead to win the match. That same season Bonetti was voted runner-up in the FWA(football writers association) footballer of the year awards.
In 1971, the team won their first major European trophy; the UEFA CUP WINNERS CUP, after a replayed final against Realmadrid in Athens. It would be important to remember that it was Bonetti's inspired performance that helped Chelsea held on to a 2-1 win after they had took a 2-0lead in the replay. That was the last trophy he won while at the club. They failed to build on their success as a result of financial and disciplinary problems within the club, and in 1975 Bonetti left on a free transfer to join the ST. LOUIS STARS of the North American soccer league. That year he helped the American side top the central Division that summer and reach the play-off semi-finals. He played a total of 22 games for them that year. He then returned return to Chelsea where he helped new manager Eddie Mc creadie's side gain promotion in 1976-77. He played his last game for Chelsea in a 1-1 draw with Arsenal in may 1979.
After leaving Chelsea he moved to the Isle of Mull where he became a postman . Later , he briefly came out of retirement to play several games for Dundee United. Retiring from playing, Bonetti moved into coaching and had spells with Chelsea, Manchester City and the England national team.

CHELSEA PLAYERS CLUB APPEARANCES PART 1

10 CHELSEA PLAYERS WITH THE HIGHEST APPEARANCES FOR THE CLUB.
PART I;

In this post we are going to discuss about the Chelsea player with the highest appearances for the club. There are 10 Chelsea players with the highest appearances for the club, but in this part 1 of 10 Chelsea players with highest appearances for Chelsea football club we are going to start with the player that holds the highest record appearances for the club.
RONALD EDWARD HARRIS, is the player with the most appearances for the club. He played a record 795 games for Chelsea. The defender was born in London, England on 13th november 1944. He played for Chelsea in the 1960's and 1970's. He was regarded as one of the toughest defenders of his time.
Harris was part of the Chelsea team that won the youth FA CUP in 1961. On february 1962, he made his senior team appearance in a match against Sheffield Wednesday . His debut game was a one he would be proud to remember because, Chelsea won the game 1-0. Within a year , he established himself as a regular in the Chelsea team. He formed an integral part of the then Chelsea manager Tommy Docherty's youth oriented rebuilding of the club after they were relegated from the first division.
Upon the club's return to top division, he improved his game so much with a series of strong performances. The League Cup win against Leicestery City in 1965 was his first major trophy with Chelsea. The same season Chelsea finished 3rd in the League after a poor run of one win in their final five matches.
Harris became the club captain in 1966 and in 1967 he became the youngest ever captain to lead out a side in FA CUP finals, though they lost 2-1 to Tottenham. Three years later Harris led Chelsea to another FA CUP final, this time against Leeds United. Chelsea won that FA CUP 2-1 in a replayed final at Old Trafford.
The following season Harris led Chelsea to their first major European honour- the UEFA CUP WINNERS CUP against Realmadrid in Athens. Chelsea also reached a second LEAGUE CUP final in 1972, but were surprisingly beaten by Stoke. That match was Harris last major final for the club.
During the 1970's many of Chelsea's star players departed for various reasons, but Harris remained an ever present in the side throughout the decade, though he lost the club captaincy to the 18 year old Ray Wilkins(now Ancellotis's assistant at Chelsea). In 1980 Harris finally left Chelsea to become a player-manager at Brentford .He later had a brief stint as player-manager of Aldershot.

LITTLE KNOWN FACTS ABOUT CHELSEA FC

LITTLE KNOWN FACTS ABOUT CHELSEA FC

Chelsea football club, an English professional football team based in Fulham west London, was founded on 14th March 1905. Chelsea quickly gained reputation for attracting large crowds and signing big name players. The clubs early years saw little success as they failed to win any major trophy in their first fifty years. They spent thirty of their first forty seasons in the first division, although they often found themselves finishing in mid-table or battling relegation. The closet Chelsea came to winning a major trophy was reaching the FA CUP final in 1915, where they lost to Sheffield United.
The dead luck was finally broken by manager TED DRAKE(former Arsenal and England centre forward), who introduced a series of changes at the club(including the removal of the clubs pensioner crest, and improving the youth set-up and training regime) and led Chelsea to the League Championship in 1955. The following season saw UEFA create the European Champions Cup, but after objections from the football league and FA, Chelsea were persuaded to withdraw from the competition before it started.
From 1963-72 Chelsea regularly challenged for honours for the first time, although the often narrowly missed out. They won the league cup in 1965, the FA Cup in 1970 and the UEFA Cup winners in 1971(after defeating Realmadrid), they were also FA Cup runners-up in 1967 and league cup runner-up in 1972.
Several problems over the next decade, principally the debt burden caused by an ambitious attempt to redevelop Stamford Bridge, brought the club to the brink of extinction, before a revival under John Nael in the 1980s saw the club win the second division trophy and ultimately re-established itself in the top flight.
A further revival under managers Ruud Gullit(1996-98) and Gianluca Vialli(1998-2000) saw Chelsea win the FA Cup in 1997 and 2000, the league cup and UEFA cup in 1998 and qualify for the champions league for the first time.
Since 1995 till date Chelsea have not finished outside of the top six in the English premier league.
In 2003, Chelsea were bought by Russian Billionaire Roman Abramovich, ushering in the club's current phase of success. Manager Jose Mourinho arrived at the club, replacing Claudio Ranieri as the coach and led Chelsea to two league tittles, an FA cup and two league tittles in three seasons.The club added a further FA cup in 2009, reached their first UEFA champions league final in may 2008, were they lost to Manchester United on penalties.