Chelsea Football Club or Chelsea FC is an English league football club that is based in West London. It was founded in 1905 and has been playing in the English Premier League since then. Chelsea Football Club has quite an admirable record in terms of wins as they have been crowned as the English club champions three times while they have won the FA Cup five times. Apart from this, Chelsea FC has also won the UEFA Cup Winners Cup twice and the League Cup four times.
Chelsea Football Club is also known as "The Pensioners" or "The Blues" met with their first major success in 1955 when they won the league championship. During the 1960-1970's period, Chelsea has won several club cup competitions but after that their drought lasted for 2 decades. They won their next major title only in 1997. The period from 2000-2009 is being regarded as the most successful years in the clubs football history as they won consecutive Premier League titles in 2005 and 2006. Chelsea FC also reached their first UEFA Champions League final in 2008 led by Jose Mourinho.
Founded on 14 March 1905 at The Rising Sun pub, Chelsea Football Club has come a long way since then. The early years of Chelsea FC saw very little success. The closest the club had come to winning a major tournament was the FA Cup final in 1915. They lost the match to Sheffield United. Since the very beginning, Chelsea had a reputation for signing big-names although it did not help them win as many tournaments. It was in the 1960's that talented young players under then manager Tommy Docherty helped the club to reach certain heights. Throughout the decade from 1960-1970, they went through several near win games. The period from late 1970 to 1980s were the most turbulent period in the clubs history. It all came to the point where an ambitious redevelopment of the Stamford Bridge almost threatened the financial stability of the club. Some of the top players of the club were sold and the team was relegated.
But Chelsea FC bounced back! They won the Second Division title in 1983-84 and went on to the top division before being relegated again in 1988. They went on to win the second division title again in 1988-89. Even though Chelsea FC was shuttling between extremes and the form of their star players were under the scanner, the club managed to reach the FA Cup final in 1994. From there on, things started to look better for the slub especially after Ruud Gullit joined as the player-manager in 1996. He brought in top-class international players into the ailing side and they ended up winning the FA Cup in 1997. Ruud Gullit was replaced by Gianluca Vialli from Italy and he led Chelsea FC to victory in the Cup Winners' Cup in 1998, the FA Cup in 2000 and the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals in 2000. Claudio Ranieri joined Chelsea FC after Vialli and took the team to 2002 FA Cup Final as well as Champions League qualification in 2002-03.
After Chelsea FC was sold to Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich in 2003 for £140 million, Portuguese coach José Mourinho was brought in. Led by Mourinho, Chelsea FC became the fifth English club to win back-to-back league championships. The current manager of Chelsea FC is Guus Hiddink.
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