In the modern era, Chelsea is a football club that is regularly in the fight for honours. That wasn’t always the way, however, and when Ted Drake arrived at the club he was given the tough task of turning it from a club of has-beens and also-rans into one that would lift its first piece of silverware since its formation in 1905. Having previously signed star players in order to attract large crowds rather than bringing in the right people to offer a chance of success, Drake wanted to change the club’s reputation and make it one that would look to seriously contend for the major honours, becoming the first person to win the league with the Blues.
Ted Drake’s Honours as Chelsea Manager
| Season | League Titles | Domestic Cups | European/International Cups |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1954/55 | First Division | – | – |
| 1955/56 | – | Charity Shield | – |
Drake as Player
Edward Joseph Drake was born in Southampton on the 16th of August 1912. He worked as a has engineer during his youth, playing for local side Winchester City before nearly joining Tottenham Hotspur as a schoolboy, only to miss the trial match lined up for him with an injury. George Kay persuaded him to join Southampton, who were playing in Division Two at the time, making his debut for the club as 19-year-old on the 14th of November 1931. He soon signed a professional contract with the club, playing as the first-choice centre-forward for the following season. He made 33 appearances in the league and scored 20 goals.
Such was Drake’s ability that he caught the eye of Herbert Chapman, who wanted him to move to Arsenal. He rejected the chance initially, but after scoring eight goals in the opening five games of the following season, new Arsenal boss George Allison persuade him to sign for the Gunners. Having left Southampton with 48 goals in 74 appearances, he scored 42 goals in 41 games for Arsenal in the 1934-1935 season, firing the club to a league title. In the following season he scored seven goals in a single game, claiming an eighth that wasn’t given. He won the league twice with Arsenal, as well as the FA Cup.
Managing Chelsea
Having done well to write his name in the history books of Arsenal, to the extent that he was one of 32 club legends to be emblazoned on a mural on the walls of the Emirates Stadium, Drake turned to management. He took over at Hendon in 1946 and then Reading a year later, leading them to a runners-up spot in the Division Three South at the end of the 1948-1949 season, then again three years later. That was enough to capture the attention of Chelsea Football Club, who were looking to bring someone in to help the club mount a sustained challenge for silverware. He signed up as manager in the June of 1952.
Drake arrived at a club that was nicknamed ‘the Pensioners’, with a Chelsea Pensioner crest being the club badge. The reputation of Chelsea was as a side that signed unreliable players who boasted a big name, but Drake decided that sweeping changes were necessary for success. The old badge was out, with a new one made up of the Lion Rampant Regardant coming in instead. He also changed the nickname to ‘the Blues’, essentially meaning that he was the father of modern day Chelsea. It wasn’t just off the pitch were big changes were introduced, either; Drake was responsible for altering the way the club played football too.
He introduced scouting reports on new players, looking out for ones that would make a difference to the squad that he was playing games with. When it came to training, a new, tougher regime was brought in, basing it on ball work in a way that was rare in England at the time. The policy of signing well-known players was abandoned, replacing it with bringing in lesser-known but more reliable players form the lower divisions and even the amateur game, with the likes of Frank Blunstone, John McNichol and Derek Saunders all arriving. By the end of the 1954-1955 season, Drake work paid off and Chelsea won the First Division title.
Falling Off
The extent to which Drake was seen as a hero at Chelsea cannot be over-stated. He had not only won the club’s first title, but their first notable piece of silverware of any sort. In those days, of course, the rivalry between Chelsea and Arsenal isn’t what it is today, so his accomplishment of being the first person to win the league as both a player and a manager was celebrated by supporters from both London clubs. Sadly, though, he never came close to repeating the trick. Instead, his league winning side was gradually broken up, with players from the youth team coming through to replace the players that Drake had signed.
The likes of Peter Brabrook, Jimmy Greaves and Bobby Tambling began to play for the first team, seeing Drake as something of an aloof figure that they struggled to respect. Performances became erratic, with results lacking any sort of reliability. When Chelsea lost in the FA Cup to Fourth Division Crewe Alexandra, Drake’s position at the club was barely hanging on by a thread. Months later, with Chelsea looking as though they were going to spend the 1961-1962 season in mid-table as they had for the past few years, Drake was sacked. He would go on to be a Chief Scout, Director and Life President of Fulham, but it was at Chelsea where he really made his name.