Gianluca Vialli: Chelsea Manager 1998 to 2000

For those that know modern day Chelsea, or at least the one that Roman Abramovich was in charge of, the idea of a club randomly sacking managers and employing new ones isn’t new. It wasn’t how things used to be, however, which is why the 1998 sacking of Ruud Gullit with the Blues second in the Premier League and in the quarter-finals of two cup competitions came somewhat out of left field. Whilst it obviously wasn’t good news for Gullit, it worked out well for his replacement, who got to take over at a club where things were going reasonably well and keep steering the ship, winning numerous trophies along the way.

Gianluca Vialli’s Honours as Chelsea Manager

Vialli the Player

Gianluca Vialli was born in the Italian city of Cremona on the ninth of July 1964. His senior career began 16 years later when he signed for his local club, Cremonese, who were playing matches in Serie C1. He helped them gain promotion to Serie B during a stint at the club that lasted for 105 league games, scoring 23 goals. In the 1983-1984 season, Vialli scored ten Serie B goals as a winger, earning him a move to Sampdoria. He played there for eight years, with the club enjoying its most successful period during that time. They won the Italian cup for the first time in 1985, as well as the Serie A title for the first time in 1991.

Such was the level of performances that Vialli was putting in for Sampdoria, including getting them to the European Cup final, he caught the eye of those in charge at Juventus. The Italian giants paid a world record fee at the time to prize him away from Sampdoria, with the club parting with £12.5 million. In his first season there he won the UEFA Cup, then in 1995 he fired Juventus to a Scudetto and Italian Cup double. In the January of 1996, knowing that his contract would expire in the summer, Vialli decided it was time to move on. He captained the side to success in the Supercoppa Italiana as well as a Champions League final win over Ajax, ending his time at Juventus having played 102 games and scoring 38 goals.

Arriving at Chelsea

In the summer of 1996, Ruud Gullit signed Vialli for Chelsea as part of his new-look side. The Italian quickly adapted to life in London, including scoring two goals against Liverpool as the Blues came from behind to beat the Merseyside club 4-2 in the fourth round of the FA Cup on their way to winning it. Ever the stereotype of a fiery Italian, Vialli regularly fought with Gullit and was therefore left out of the team often, with the FA Cup final seeing him limited to just five minutes of playing time. During the following season, Vialli scored four goals against Barnsley and a hat-trick in the Cup Winners’ Cup.

Even with his goal-scoring exploits, Vialli still struggled to cement his place in Gullit’s side. In the early part of 1998, however, a decision was taken by Ken Bates to sack the Dutchman, asking Vialli to take on the role of player-manager in his stead. Whether what followed can truly be assigned to Vialli rather than Gullit is a matter for some debate, but the London club went on to win the European Cup Winners’ Cup as well as the League Cup, with Vialli even leaving himself out of the squad for the League Cup final. In spite of this, he still ended the season as the club’s top scorer, playing less and less as the time went on.

Gianluca Vialli’s Honours as Chelsea Player

Vialli the Chelsea Manager

At the start of the following season, which was Vialli’s first full one as player-manager, Chelsea defeated Real Madrid 1-0 in the UEFA Super Cup, a competition that was competed over between the Champions League winners and the Cup Winners’ Cup winners at the time, rather than the Champions League and UEFA Cup winners. At the end of the 1998-1999 season, Vialli decided to retire from playing football in order to concentrate on his management career. His last appearance as a player came in a game against Derby County at Stamford Bridge in which he, suitably enough, scored the winning goal.

His victory in the Cup Winners’ Cup had made him the youngest ever manager to win a UEFA competition, which remained the record until André Villas-Boas won the Europa League in 2011. His decision to retire as a player came on the back of Chelsea’s best league finish since 1970, with the Blues ending up third and just four points shy of Manchester United’s title winning total. It meant that Chelsea had qualified for the Champions League for the first time, with the London club making it to the quarter-finals. Having defeated Barcelona 3-1 in the first leg, they ended up losing the tie 6-4 on aggregate after extra-time.

Alongside their exploits in the Champions League, Chelsea also finished fifth in the Premier League and made it to the final of the FA Cup, where they would face Aston Villa. The first-half ended in a goalless stalemate, but in the 73rd minute Vialli’s fellow Italian, Roberto Di Matteo, put a rebound from David James into the back of the net to win Vialli’s fourth piece of major silverware for the Blues. Although the 2000-2001 season started well enough when Chelsea defeated Manchester United in the Charity Shield, he was sacked five games into the season after having fallen out with a number of the club’s high-profile players.

He took up a job as the Watford manager, with the Hornets in the second tier of English football at the time. A number of big-name signings were made, such as Filippo Galli and Ramon Vega, but the club could only finish 14th and the Italian was sacked at the end of the season. He loved his life in London, continuing to live in the same part of the city 20 years after leaving Chelsea. Towards the end of 2018, Vialli revealed that he had been suffering from pancreatic cancer. He was give the all-clear in the April of 2020, but in the December of 2021 confessed he had been diagnosed with it for the second time. He died on the sixth of January 2023, aged 58.