When Chelsea made the decision to sack Ted Drake, the man who won the club not only its first top-flight title but its first piece of silverware of any respect, there was a need to give someone the job that the fans could get on board with. Having been a player-coach for a time, Docherty was given the manager’s job and tasked with keeping the Blues in the First Division. He failed to do so, but showed enough promise to mean that the club decided to stick with him. It proved to be a wise decision, with ‘The Doc’, as he was known, not only getting them promoted but also going on to win the League Cup for the first time.
Tommy Docherty’s Honours as Chelsea Manager
| Season | League Titles | Domestic Cups | European/International Cups |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1964/65 | – | League Cup | – |
Docherty as a Player
Thomas Henderson Docherty was Born in Glasgow on the 24th of April 1928. When you learn that he was born on Shettleston Road and began his playing career with the junior football club Shettleston, you can see that he didn’t move too far from what he knew during the early days. In 1946 he was called up to National Service with the Highland Light Infantry, representing the British Army at football whilst he did so. When his National Service was complete, Docherty was offered a contract with Celtic, signing in 1947 and learning a huge amount from the club’s coach, Jimmy Hogan. In 1949 he left Celtic to join Preston North End.
That proved to be an inspired move, not only because it took him to England but also because it saw him win the Second Division title in 1951 and make it to the final of the FA Cup three years later. Preston lost the game 3-2 to West Bromwich Albion, but Docherty played as a right-half in one of nearly 300 appearances for the club. He left to sign for Arsenal in 1958, making 83 appearances for the Gunners and scoring one goal. As has been the case numerous times throughout the history of the two clubs, Docherty left Highbury in 1961 in order to sign for Chelsea, arriving at the club as a player-coach initially.
Becoming Chelsea Manager
Having signed for Chelsea under the management of Ted Drake in the role of player-coach, less than 12 months later Tommy Docherty was offered the manager’s role full-time. The club was facing a relegation battle, which they lost at the end of the 1961-1962 campaign. In spite of this, Docherty had the full support of the Chelsea management team and decided to get ride of some of the older players, replacing them with names such as Barry Bridges, Bobby Tambling, Terry Venables and Peter Bonetti. He also chose to change the club’s home kit, having previously played with a blue top and white shorts, to an all-blue kit.
The side soon earned the nickname ‘Docherty’s Diamonds’, not least thanks to the playing style that saw them win the Second Division at the first time of asking. Not only did they enjoy promotion straight back into the top-flight, they also managed to finish fifth in their first season, proving the Chelsea management correct in keeping the faith with ‘The Doc’. What followed was one of the club’s finest season’s since they won the league. Chelsea made it to the final of the League Cup, winning the trophy for the first time thanks to an aggregate win over Leicester City, whist also finishing third in the league and making it to the FA Cup semi-final.
The fact that the team that Chelsea lost to in the semi-final of the FA Cup was eventual winners Liverpool showed, in some ways, just how good a job Docherty had done. A year later and the club was on the march again, this time in European competition. Under Docherty’s management the side made to the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, whilst a year later they went one step further in the FA Cup and made it to the final. It was played on the 20th of May 1967, with Chelsea going up against London rivals Tottenham Hotspur. Spurs went into a 2-0 lead after 67 minutes, with a goal from Bobby Tambling in the 85th minute proving to be a consolation for Chelsea.
Resignation & Life After Chelsea
In the October of 1967, Tommy Docherty chose to hand in his resignation to Chelsea. Whilst his time at the club was over, his influence on it most definitely wasn’t. The core players that he’d brought to Stamford Bridge, including the likes of Ron Harris, Charlie Cooke, Peter Osgood and John Hollins, went on to win both the FA Cup and the Cup Winners’ Cup under the man who took over from Docherty, Dave Sexton. You can read about Sexton in more detail elsewhere on this site. A month after he left Chelsea, Docherty took over at Rotherham United, famously saying, “I promised I would take Rotherham out of the Second Division – and I took them into the Third. The old chairman said ‘Doc, you’re a man of your word!'”
In the end, Chelsea was the start of a long career in management rather than the end of it. He left Rotherham United for Queens Park Rangers, then took over at Aston Villa before gaining some experience abroad with Porto. He was given the Scotland job and then became Manchester United’s manager, remaining at Old Trafford for five years. From there he went to Derby County, back to QPR, managed at Sydney Olympic and then returned to the club he spent longest at as a player in Preston North End. A stint at South Melbourne came before a return to Sydney Olympic, then he managed Wolverhampton Wanderers and Altrincham prior his death in the December of 2020.