Who doesn’t love a good season review video?
Unless it’s a season you got relegated in, why wouldn’t you want to relive
all the games and goals of the previous season? Recapture some of that
excitement you felt first time around. Notice some things you didn’t see
before. Frankly, they are great.
Chelsea first tried it out in 1987 and…yeah, it kind of shows.
Opening on an image on the old CFC badge with the lion that looked a
bit too close to Millwall for some fans liking on the East Stand, the camera
slowly zooms out and our host Patrick O’Brien walks into shot. He looks a bit
like snooker player Willie Thorne and is just as comfortable in front of the
camera as Thorne would be taking on Stephen Hendry.
Patrick tells us this is the ‘first attempt’ to put together ‘a
yearbook on cassette.’ I’m not sure if he means first anywhere or just at
Chelsea. He says the video will show us the good action ‘as well as some of the
bad action’, so at least he’s giving us some warning.
Everything here is decidedly amateur. When the camera zooms out you can
hear the hand turning the lens. O’Brien is clearly reading from a script which
he stumbles through with a lot of ‘ums’ and ‘ars’. And I actually kind of love
him for it. You just wouldn’t get that on the modern Chelsea DVD’s, usually
narrated by the uber professional Jon Champion.
Kerry Dixon heads in against Luton Town
He does a bit of a recap of where Chelsea are from last season and then
its off to the first game against Luton Town. Actually, the Luton game was
Chelsea’s fifth game of the season but this video doesn’t have action from any
away games and Chelsea hadn’t scored in their other home matches, so the game
in which Chelsea did get one was a good place to start with a nice header from
Kerry Dixon. Shame it was in a 3-1 defeat.
1986-87 was the season Chelsea didn’t have a kit manufacturer and chose
to make their own, the Chelsea Collection. A blue shirt with a long white strip
down the arms, as worn by such illuminaries such as Dixon, Gordon Durie, Pat Nevin, Mickey Hazard and er, John McNaught. Not a bad kit though it does look more grey-green on the video
than blue at times on the video.
The highlights take a break for a talking head from chairman Ken Bates.
He outlines his aims for the season were to ‘challenge for the title and all
three cup competitions’. Say what you like about Batesy but you can’t say he
wasn’t ambitious. And three cup competitions you may ask? Surely you can’t have
forgotten the highly prestigious and sought after Full Members (later Zenith
Data Systems) Cup, of which Chelsea were the envied holders?
Chelsea beating Arsenal 1-0
The lack of away games on the tape means O’Brien has to fill in the
blanks between matches and we don’t get to see wins at White Hart Lane or Old
Trafford but at least we get to see the 2-6 thumping from Nottingham Forest. I
believe O’Brien does all the commentary as well but I can’t confirm it. Also,
no replays on any of the goals. Everything is clearly filmed on one camera
anyway, so it’s not a big loss.
A combination of the cheap equipment and probable tape degradation can
make things difficult to watch at times. This is perfectly illustrated in a
game against Manchester United when O’Brien tells us if we were to watch in
slow motion we would see a United shot had crossed the line. Sorry mate, all I
can see is bright contrast in my face.
Clear as day
Watching this though, I am struck by just how different Stamford Bridge
looked back in the eighties. No doubt about it, it was a crumbling wreck with
cars parked round the pitch and away fans crammed into a pen on the North Stand
(Bates farming instincts coming out).
1986/87 was not a good season for Chelsea who struggled to 14th
in the table, having been sixth the previous year. When the tape finishes with
the goals, it goes to twenty minutes of interviews with Ken Bates and manager
John Hollins.
The Bates interview is interesting as he outlines his ambitions for the
team, his transfer policy, disdain for the press and Save the Bridge campaign.
Many younger fans may not be aware of how close Chelsea had been to going out
of business and Stamford Bridge being sold off. Bates eventually saved the club
and secured the ground for the fans after years of struggle.
Season videos were clearly a work in progress for Chelsea. I don’t know
how many other teams were producing season videos at the time but I have found
the Tottenham Hotspur video from the same year. It still only has the home
matches but in terms of production is way ahead of Chelsea’s effort. And they
had John bloody Motson narrating theirs. Lessons will be learned for
the future.
Watch it here:
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