Product Description

Zola, Cooke, Dixon, Terry and Bentley. The names trip off the tongue like manna from heaven to Blues fans. But why did these stars become the players that Chelsea fans adored, their embodiment on the pitch, the men that they would pay to see again and again? In "Chelsea's Cult Heroes", football writer Leo Moynihan examines the careers of 20 of Stamford Bridge's biggest icons, discovers why they became such legends and how fans grew to love them, despite their idiosyncracies, behaviour and antics!The journey begins with 22 stone goalkeeper 'Fatty Foulke', who, legend has it, delighted crowds by dangling opposing forwards' heads in the mud. Along the way we relive the 1955 Championship winning glory with Roy Bentley and Eric Parsons, swagger down the Kings Road with Osgood, Cooke and Hudson, laugh along with heroes of the 80s such as Pat Nevin and cower from he-men Micky Droy and Joey Jones. While in recent times the modern genius of the twinkling feet of Gianfranco Zola and sheer will and determination of current skipper John Terry ensure that these pages brim full with footballing gods.The book also charts the emotional history of Chelsea from the moment it was conceived by multi-millionaire, Gus Mears to attract the cognescenti of West London through its turnstiles, through the glamour of the sixties and the dark days of the hooligan era, to the multi-national, trophy-winning superclub that it is today. This book examines the club's roots and reveals how far, or not, the present club has drifted from them. Containing many exclusive interviews, including one of the last ever with legend Peter Osgood, and with a foreword by the late Tony Banks, this book is a must for all true Blues fans.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #302720 in Books
• Published on: 2005-10-26
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 240 pages

Review
Full of quotes and anecdotes from many of the players themselves, it is written with a lot of respectful passion, and no small helping of an enjoyable, easy-to-read style...The great successes and the sobering lows are all in there, along with the characters who created or played their part in them. For this and more, Chelsea's Cult Heroes, undoubtedly, has a place on the bookshelves of all Chelsea fans. And, for that matter, football fans in general - Will Reilly, Sporting Life.

From the Publisher
Review for Chelsea's Cult Heroes:
In amongst the September cloak-and-dagger comings and goings of the most-successful period of Chelsea's topsy-turvy footballing history, a copy of Chelsea's Cult Heroes found its way onto my desk.
The cover notes state ""Moynihan examines the careers of 20 of Stamford Bridge's biggest icons (and) why they became such legends and how the fans grew to love them, despite their idiosyncracies!"".
It made for interesting reading.
From humble origins Chelsea Football Club has made its way up to the dizzying height of major player in the modern multi-million pound footballing world.
Along the way, a tale of highs and lows, heartbreak and heroes has been written and, within it all - as with every club in its own way - a colourful cast of footballing characters have made their way onto the hallowed turf of, in this case, Stamford Bridge and left their marks on the Chelsea faithful.
From the outsized goalkeeping entertainer, William 'Fatty' Foulke, to the darting, jinking, skilled footballing genius of Gianfranco Zola, the book is lined with legends, each of them having left their footballing footprints on the Kings Road - and beyond, for that matter.
Osgood, Hudson, Cooke, Greaves, Gullit, Wise, Wilkins...the list goes on. Yes, as the book acknowledges, there are many who could have, maybe should have, also been included: the great Peter 'The Cat' Bonetti, the fiery David Speedie, the Cup-winning hero David Webb, the hard-tackling 'Blind' Eddie McCreadie, and, from more-recent times, Gianluca Vialli, are names that spring to mind.
No matter. Those that are there deserve to be so, and the book makes for a really good read.
An enthusiastic writer, Moynihan takes his well-researched writings beyond mere recollections and reminders of what the players achieved - or, indeed, failed to achieve - placing these against social conditions and stories making the news of the day.
Thus we get an idea of what the cloth-capped, packed terraces of the 1950s, the style of the swinging sixties, and the football-related violence of the 1980s were all about.
Full of quotes and anecdotes from many of the players themselves, it is written with a lot of respectful passion, and no small helping of an enjoyable, easy-to-read style. And, much as its raison d'etre must have been to sing the praises of accepted heroes, the book does not gloss over their human failings.
Given the overall enjoyment it brought, it is easy to overlook the book's occasional spelling mistakes and flowery descriptions (Pat Nevin's skills, for example, being referred to as those of an ""elfin miraculist"") and enjoy the stories that, I must admit, brought back a flood of lovely memories, as well as some not so good ones.
Such is Chelsea's history. The great successes and the sobering lows are all in there, along with the characters who created or played their part in them. For this and more, Chelsea's Cult Heroes, undoubtedly, has a place on the bookshelves of all Chelsea fans. And, for that matter, football fans in general - Will Reilly, Sporting Life

Customer Reviews

Chelsea Chelsea
Personally I've got a bit fed up with all these Mourinho/Abramovich loving books which have proliferated over the past couple of years. It's so refreshing to see a Chelsea book appear on the market which actually delves into what makes Chelsea fans, and the club, tick.
Leo Moynihan has grasped the essence of being a Chelsea fan by looking at the Chelsea careers of the 20 biggest fans' icons of the club's history. By its very nature the book courts controversy as his selection does NOT include Bonetti, Lampard or Vialli to name but three. In fact the choice of players is based on the star quality that they brought to the Bridge, thus the book begins by charting the tale of the club's foundation through the signing of the biggest name in early 20th Century football - gargantuan keeper Fatty Foulke.
Just like an Abramovich star signing in 2005, in 1905 Foulke was signed precisely to bring star quality to the club. His signing brought in the crowds who loved to see his antics. He often got involved in all sorts of silliness on the pitch ranging from dangling opposing forwards head down in the mud to chasing players that dare score against him back down the field!
Along the way Moynihan visits the careers of such Chelsea luminaries as Osgood, Hudson, Harris, Bentley, Gullit, Wise and of course Zola. Obvious choices they may be, but what the author brings to this account of their careers and how they changed Chelsea FC is a fresh look at how they turned into such terrace legends.
What's particularly interesting is the themes which develop throughout the book. For example, Chelsea have always bought stars. This is not a new thing. Following Foulke Chelsea broke British transfer record after British transfer record. The most obvious example being the capture of Hughie Gallacher, the brilliant Scot, from Newcastle in the 1920s. all these high profile stars didn't actually bring Chelsea any silverware however and it wasn't until Foss's 1950s youth teams flung out such stars as Greaves, Harris, Osgood and Hudson that the club truly hit the heights.
Now of course, the oil-fuelled spending spree has reaped dividends, but Moynihan closes the book with a look at the homegrown talent made in good in John Terry, making the valid point that he is the true heartbeat of the club, which is refreshing considering the squillions Roman has spent to bring trophies to the Bridge.
I loved this new look at Chelsea and found it written with humour and poignancy.