Overview

From Ted Drake’s unexpected champions of 1955, to Thomas Tuchel’s surprise Champions League victors of 2021, the club has won ‘the lot’, unlike any of their London rivals. Now former Daily Mirror Chief Sports Writer Harry Harris and Paul Trevillion, the acclaimed artist behind Roy of the Rovers and ‘You Are The Ref’, have combined forces to produce a personal history of the club. Paul featured Chelsea players heavily in his illustrations for Fleet Street and wrote a column with battering ram centre-forward Ian Hutchinson in the early 1970s that regularly included legends such as Peter Osgood, Ron Harris and Alan Hudson. Harry spent much of the 1980s and 1990s reporting on the club at close quarters following Ken Bates’ purchase of the Blues for £1 in 1982 and he had a front row seat for the unfolding boardroom battle between Matthew Harding and Bates a decade later that almost tore the club in two. Yet what emerged from that battle was a club transformed and attractive to ‘big money’. Bates would not have been able to sell the club to Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich in 2003 without this rapid growth. The success of the years that followed are featured heavily here as are the fondly remembered teams of earlier periods as well as Chelsea’s recent takeover and the incredible success of the women’s team.

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PAUL TREVILLION has devised and drawn thousands of sporting features since the early 1950’s and, ovMovement’ for his unique bring the personality of a subject to life. Eagle, Tiger and the Spurs supporters magazine, The Lilywhite, while still a school boy. In 1952, he met and sketched HRH the Duke of Edinburgh at an awards ceremony at Mansion House, which resulted in a letter from His Royal Highness in praise of the young artist being published in the national press, launching his career in sporting art. In 1955 he met Sir Winston Churchill who signed a smiling portrait painting of the great war leader, which is still today the only signed smiling portrait of Churchill in existence. Paul then created the iconic refereeing feature ‘You Are The Ref’ which began in 1957 as ‘Hey Ref !’ in the Sunday People, and went on to appear in Shoot! magazine in the 1970’s and 1980’s and from 2006 in The Observer. In 1963 he revolutionised Roy of the Rovers with his ‘Comic Art Realism’ style and within weeks children were writing in for Roy Race’s autograph convinced he was real! Thanks to ‘Comic Art Realism’ – Roy Race, a footballer who never existed, lived FOREVER! An acclaimed sports artist, author, inventor and motivator he has worked with the likes of Pelé, George Best, Paul Gascoigne, Gary Player, Lee Trevino and Sugar Ray Robinson… to name just a few. His work has appeared in major London exhibitions and at the FIFA Museum and the National Football Museum. A lifelong Spurs fan, one of Paul’s first memories is being taken to see a cup tie between Spurs and Everton and in the process developing a childhood obsession with Dixie Dean. My love affair with the world’s greatest football tournament began as a 14 year-old as I was there to see England lift the trophy at Wembley. Later in life I was privileged to write Pelé’s official autobiography and tell the inside story of the great man’s first World Cup at the age of 17 and interviewed many of The Greatest Ever World Cup Team, Brazil 1970. How I pulled off becoming the only journalist to interview Diego Maradona one-to-one in the back seat of Ossie Ardiles’ car in 1986 must be one of the most off beat World Cup stories of all time. As Chief Football Writer for the Daily Mirror I was at the Azteca Stadium to witness both the Hand of God and the Greatest Ever World Cup goal within minutes of each other. At Italia ’90 it was all about Gazza’s tears, and I was there to document all the behind the scenes stories. Four years later, I was at the press conference following Maradona’s failed drugs test. At France ’98 I witnessed David Beckham’s red card and the incredible fall out. Prior to the 2002 tournament I won the award of “Sports Story of the Year” by breaking Roy Keane’s bust up with Mick McCarthy, while I was also at the press conference when Ruud Gullit announced he was leaving the World Cup squad. In my career with the Mail, Mirror and Express I have known and become friends with most of the Boys of ‘66. My greatest wish - to see England win the World Cup in 2026 after 60 years of hurt! Ken Bates bought Chelsea FC for £1 in 1982 and sold it to Roman Abramovitch in 2003 for £60m, setting the club on course for a place in the European elite. During his controversial 21-year reign at the Bridge, Ken could be said to have saved the club from hostile developers and a hostile takeover by Matthew Harding. 91-year-old Ken Bates now lives peacefully in Monaco.

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