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Chelsea F.C.

The club was only created after Fulham F.C. refused an offer to rent the ground at Stamford Bridge. The owner of the land decided to go it alone and still develop the land as a football stadium in 1904. He did have offers from the Great Western Railway. Chelsea F.C. was founded in 1905 and were placed directly into the Second Division. They were also the first club to develop a match programme, and the first club to introduce colour pictures into their programme.

The club has always struggled to compete with the success of Arsenal up until the takeover by Russian oil magnate Roman Abramovich. Under Ted Drake they did win the League championship – in 1954–55. They did produce a good team under manager Tommy Docherty in the 1960's with star players like Peter Osgood. The 70's and 80's was a tough period for the club, with increasing financial problems it was take over by Ken Bates for the nominal sum of £1, just as the club looked like it could go out of business.

He slowly stabalised the club, in 1996 the superstar Ruud Gullit became player-manager and revolutionised the club. Finally Chelsea were competing with the big boys on the pitch and for star signing. Gianfranco Zola and Gianluca Vialli were two of the megastars signed which are still legends at the club. Even though they failed to win the league championship in this period they were always there or there abouts.

They won quite a few cups, and the good times were back at Stamford Bridge. When Roman Abramovich bought the club for £140 million in 2003, he brought in the Portuguese coach José Mourinho, self styled the 'special one' he had won the European Cup with his previous club Porto. In his first season he won the Premier League, and did the same the following season. In his third season he finished 3rd, and came under increasing pressure in the press for playing negative football. Also his failure to win the Champions League contributed to his forced removal by the owner.

He did come close however, losing two semi finals to Liverpool. He also struck up a huge rivalry with Barcelona, matches played between the two clubs were bad tempered, played at a frantic pace and made for a great spectacle.