Bernard Lambourde

[James 5,140]

Lambourde made his debut for Chelsea against reigning Premier League champions Manchester United, and helped the team to a creditable 2-2 draw. However he was sent off against Liverpool less than two weeks after his debut - just 25 minutes into the match, with Chelsea going on to lose 4-2.

Lambourde struggled to establish himself as a first team player thereafter, and with Albert Ferrer and Marcel Desailly bolstering the squad at the start of the 1998-99 season he remained a fringe player under Gianluca Vialli. Lambourde briefly went on loan to Portsmouth in his final season at Chelsea, in which he made just one substitute appearance for the club. In the summer of 2001 he was sold to French side Bastia for £300,000.

Lambourde is perhaps best remembered for scoring the winner in a 1-0 away victory over rivals Tottenham Hotspur in the 1999-00 season. His other goals for Chelsea came against Middlesbrough in the league earlier in the same season, and against Valerenga in the previous season's Cup Winners' Cup.

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[Ollie 4,400]

he wasnt exactly shocking lol, bought as a midfielder he looked good when he turned to a defender because he werent gonna play much in midfield due to who we had. Scored the winner at WHL so i'll always love him lol.

[Badboy 1,526]

He was a decent player tall strong centre back.

[the wes 7,212]

he was eddie newton in disguise

[James 5,140]

he wasnt exactly shocking lol, bought as a midfielder he looked good when he turned to a defender because he werent gonna play much in midfield due to who we had. Scored the winner at WHL so i'll always love him lol.

Ok maybe shocking was the wrong word to use.

He had number 7 but they took it away from and gave him 21, anyone know why?

[Mungii 3]

I remember him, I had his big poster in mz room, but I don-t think that he deserves to be in cfc gold!!

[Vesper 27,310]

Rebooted: Lambourde – ‘It was hard to understand a word Dennis Wise was saying’

https://theathletic.com/1683737/2020/03/19/bernard-lambourde-chelsea-rebooted/

With British football suspended, The Athletic has picked up the season from 1998-99, where Chelsea’s pursuit of silverware has continued with victory over Norwegian side Valerenga…

Try as he might, Bernard Lambourde can’t stop chuckling. The former defender has just been asked to reflect on the 21st anniversary of scoring his first Chelsea goal and the question has caught him by complete surprise.

“You want to talk about that goal?” he replies. “Why? The one against Tottenham was much better. This shot took so many bounces before it hit the back of the net.”

Lambourde, who joined Chelsea from Bordeaux for £1.5 million in 1997, was approaching the end of his second season at Stamford Bridge when he got off the mark for the club at the 32nd attempt.

March 19th 1999 would have been the morning after the night before, when Chelsea were playing the second leg of their Cup Winners’ Cup quarter-final against Norwegian side Valerenga. They went into the match already leading 3-0 and player-manager Gianluca Vialli soon eased any fears of an unlikely comeback by scoring an away goal in the 11th minute.

Lambourde’s moment came shortly afterwards. As the clock hit the quarter-hour mark, a corner from captain Dennis Wise was headed clear by a Valerenga defender to the edge of the penalty area and an unmarked Lambourde decided to try his luck.

“I thought, ‘You’re a bit far out but you have to try it anyway,'” Lambourde tells The Athletic. “I caught the ball on the volley but the connection wasn’t the best. It seemed to take a long time and a lot of bounces before it went into the corner. I didn’t celebrate too much. I was laughing more than I was celebrating. I couldn’t believe it had gone in.”

It may have been a low-key moment in a one-sided affair — Chelsea went on to progress to the semi-finals 6-2 on aggregate — but this bit of fun was in keeping with a lot of happy times Lambourde experienced in west London.

The Frenchman moved to the English capital at a time when Chelsea manager Ruud Gullit was entertaining the globe with what was described to be “sexy football” — a term the Dutchman had first used while working as a TV pundit.

Gullit ended the club’s 26-year wait for a major trophy in the season before Lambourde arrived by lifting the FA Cup. The following campaign, which saw Gullit replaced at the helm by Vialli with three months remaining, brought both the Carabao Cup and Cup Winners’ Cup.

It was a squad full of talent, with the Midas touch being provided by Gianfranco Zola. The next step was winning a Premier League title and the club signed Marcel Desailly, who had just won the World Cup with France, along with Denmark international Brian Laudrup, Albert Ferrer from Barcelona and Lazio striker Pierluigi Casiraghi. The signal of intent was clear.

Lambourde was not one of the biggest stars in the group but the kind of solid squad player all top teams need to rely on throughout a gruelling fixture list.

“There was a lot of competition,” he admits. “I was up against Desailly, Frank Leboeuf, Michael Duberry and a young John Terry.

“There were two parts to this — there is a positive because it takes you to your best level. You have to compete with all the guys to get your place in the team. But there is also the bad way of seeing someone like Desailly come in. He was ‘The Rock’; one of the best defenders in the game, someone who has just won the World Cup. It is very difficult to take the place off someone like that.

“All I said to myself was, ‘Just do your best to get in the team and fill in anywhere — even if it is at right-back. Improve your game and do the best you can. Be there for the team when they need you.’

“Was Marcel a hero of mine? No. He couldn’t be a hero when we shared the same agent and played the same position at the same club. He was a reference for me, though. When you see the best, you have to try and match them.”

As far as inspirations throughout his four years at Chelsea go (albeit the last season was spent on loan at Portsmouth), it was actually Mark Hughes who made the biggest impact. The Welshman’s underwhelming managerial career has led to some of his exploits as a striker to fade into the background.

This is a man who played for Manchester United, Barcelona and Bayern Munich, among others, and amassed 224 goals, 39 of which came at Chelsea between 1995-98.

“Out of everyone I played with there, Hughes was my idol,” the former centre-back says. “He was the most difficult one to be up against in training. It wasn’t like he was quick or anything but he always fought for the team and his team-mates. He was good in front of goal and for me, he was the example; the state of mind he had, the character, the person.

“He was always talking to everybody in the dressing room, smiling. But once he was on the pitch, you had someone you could rely on. He would fight for everybody. He was an animal. He was like that in training matches, too. Just before games started, he’d be all quiet but once underway, he’d be completely different.”

While Hughes wasn’t around in 1998-99, another significant character was still making a big impression. “Dennis Wise will for ever be my captain,” Lambourde adds. “He was the same as Hughes, forever working hard for the club, for the team. He is the guy who made me realise it was important for the team to always compete, even in training.

“Could I understand him? At the beginning, no chance! I only knew a little English. I improved after a few months but even after one year, it was hard to understand a word he was saying.

“He would play practical jokes on me but I couldn’t always understand what he was doing. He wasn’t the only one. Many people would do jokes but it was Dennis who created this atmosphere. Luckily, he never tried to do anything with my clothes but he would do things to people like Duberry. He would cut them or hide them, just practical jokes. People like him are important, they bring everyone together.”

An opening 2-1 defeat at Coventry City made a mockery of Chelsea’s ambitions to beat Arsenal, who had won the double of Premier League and FA Cup in 1997-98, plus mighty Manchester United to first place.

But they didn’t lose again in the top flight for five months and were beaten just three times in total. Had they won, rather than drawn, successive April games against mid-table trio Middlesbrough, Leicester City and Sheffield Wednesday, they would have finished above champions United.

This is the Manchester United side still lauded till this day because they made history by also claiming the Champions League and FA Cup that year. Yet Chelsea finished just four points behind them.

Getting so close to first place still haunts Lambourde. “I think about it now and what might have been,” he says. “Everyone remembers Chelsea lifting the Premier League trophy in 2005 and regard this period as when they became a big club.

“But we were at the beginning of all that. Unluckily for us, we didn’t win the title. If we had, things would have been different for all of us, even now, as players. People would have always remembered us and this team. Now, when people talk about Chelsea, a lot is all about 2005.

“Everyone remembers the first title since they won it for the first time (in 1955) and that could have been us. I don’t care about having a statue at the ground but it would have been nice to have the souvenir!

“At the end of your career, it’s not about money, statues — it’s about the souvenirs, the memories of doing something together. The group did pick up some trophies, so it’s not like we didn’t win anything.

“But when Manchester United are winning all the trophies, there is no place for second, for anyone else. I was at Chelsea for four years and there was always Manchester United or Arsenal ahead of us in the league.”

Why did Chelsea lose out? Fortune certainly played a role. Casiraghi suffered a career-ending knee injury against West Ham United in the November, Laudrup left within weeks due to homesickness, while two regular goalscorers — Gustavo Poyet and Tore Andre Flo — spent a few months on the sidelines at a key time with injuries.

It was also suggested that Chelsea’s bid to retain the Cup Winners’ Cup, which ended with a 2-1 loss to Real Mallorca at the last four stage, was an unwelcome distraction.

But Lambourde dismisses such a theory. “I don’t think that was the problem,” he says. “There was a great state of mind, a great atmosphere and ambience. No one was tired, everyone wanted to play all the games.

“Maybe it was the calibre of players we had on the bench. I’m just comparing it to Manchester City and Liverpool now — who can play two teams. For us, it was still quite early. We were also lacking a bit of experience — not in terms of where many of them had played, as they were internationals. But most of us hadn’t won the Premier League before. That was the issue more than the quality.

“We also suffered bad luck, with Poyet and Flo getting injured. It was huge. Every time Flo came off the bench he was scoring, even in the Cup Winners’ Cup, he was crazy. The same with Gustavo. We still had some players to fill in but it was difficult to lose them.”

The following season brought disappointment for Lambourde. He was left out of the squad that won the FA Cup final and was on the pitch when Chelsea came within seven minutes of reaching the Champions League semi-finals, only to eventually lose 5-1 to Barcelona (6-4 on aggregate). “I am down now. I have to hang up!” he jests as these moments are brought up.

Being reminded of his two other goals for Chelsea is received a lot more warmly. However, as with the Valerenga strike, his effort in a 1-0 win against Middlesbrough, below, is a source of mirth. “Don’t watch that one back,” he pleads. “Zola hit a free kick against the bar but I was like a rugby man and just barged the rebound across the line.”

His lob over goalkeeper Ian Walker to ensure Chelsea beat London rivals Tottenham Hotspur in February 2000 is a different story.

“Ahhh,” he exclaims. “Thank you. Everyone thought I didn’t do it on purpose but it was great technique. I loved this because I’m a defender and no one expected it. It’s my favourite goal in my career. It told the world I was not just a defender, I was a good technical player. It was against Spurs too and got a 1-0 win. What more do you need to ask for?! I’m in the history books.”

 

So what does the 48-year-old do now? He is actually trying to pass on all that he learned during his playing days, at Chelsea in particular, to his first club, Cannes. He has been employed as general director there since 2016.

“Cannes used to be a pretty big club but it is now in the fifth tier of France,” he says. “I want to take them back. It is a long way but it is my dream. You need cash and without it here, it’s difficult. I can maybe afford a Lambourde but not a Desailly!

“Having said that, I cost £1.5 million to Chelsea — a bargain! If I was to sum up my Chelsea career, I’d say it had ups and downs. It’s like getting your report card at the end of the year at school and it says ‘Could have done better.'”

One suspects being eclipsed by that Manchester United side 21 years ago is responsible for that.