Good old ken Bates

[brimstone 35]

Thought i might add another short story from my chelsea past..Around the mid 80s we played millwall at the Bridge...Ten mins from the end i left to travel back to walthamstow where i then lived....on the way to the stn my neck was slashed by millwall fans...When Ken Bates read about it he sent myself n wife of the time 2 tickets for the old directors box...We played ipswich that day....Met some great old chelsea pensioners...Met some players..Ill just say D>R chatted the wife when i visited the loo...After the match Big Ken shook my hand and after grudgingly allowing a photo to be snapped politely sent me on my way..A good day was had

[robdog 2,084]

Nice end to your story. Glad you were able to recover & continue to support CFC. I have to agree w/ JFH on Ken Bates. He feels the club should build him a stature. W/out Bates you don't have CFC today.

[wisey11zola25 142]

KING KEN BATES. Legend of the Club!

[Fulham Broadway 16,848]

Thought i might add another short story from my chelsea past..Around the mid 80s we played millwall at the Bridge...Ten mins from the end i left to travel back to walthamstow where i then lived....on the way to the stn my neck was slashed by millwall fans...When Ken Bates read about it he sent myself n wife of the time 2 tickets for the old directors box...We played ipswich that day....Met some great old chelsea pensioners...Met some players..Ill just say D>R chatted the wife when i visited the loo...After the match Big Ken shook my hand and after grudgingly allowing a photo to be snapped politely sent me on my way..A good day was had

Blimey thats some tale -and enough to put most people ever going to football again -meeting Captain Birdsye. ...and the Millwall stuff pretty bad as well.

I think theres a love /hate relationship going on with Master Bates with most fans of that era. Yes he bought the club for £1 and rescued it .., but he saw most fans as an irritation, hence he wanted to bring in electric fences. He is also an out and out money man, no altruism with his football dealings -pure 'whats in it for me?' as Leeds fans will testify. But...had he not bought the club and its debts, a real possibility it would have beeen sold to developers and no Abramovich -or the ''Russian Shyster'' as Bates called him

Welcome by the way !

[steve5221 91]

His treatment of Matthew Harding (before and after) his death was very bad though. That is of course if the reports were correct.

[zolayes 14,489]

A similar story today ..Front page spread in the local Ipswich paper.

Father buys two tickets for the game v Swansea... at the turnstiles they were told their tickets were invalid as they had been stolen in the post.

Little boy naturally in floods of tears . Steward was kind but unable to help. Ray Wilkins was passing and asked what was wrong. On being told

went to the ticket office . He was told match was sold out .. Only tickets available were in an executive box .. Ray took out his wallet and paid

cash apparently £200 for the tickets. Of course father and son were delighted and had an added bonus as also in the box was Boris Becker.

Ray's actions didn't surprise me ,,,A TRUE GENTLEMAN and now a hero in Ipswich

[brimstone 35]

Talking bout Ray wilkins....Sometime in the 70s my pals and i , on the way to a match at SB , bumped in to the very young ray wilkins...Like me he had a good head of hair then..Said he was on the train as he didnt have a car at that point...2 years ago i wrote to him about nostalgic times...He wrote back enjoying the memories of those days.....PS we are both as bald as each other.now....

[zolayes 14,489]

Talking bout Ray wilkins....Sometime in the 70s my pals and i , on the way to a match at SB , bumped in to the very young ray wilkins...Like me he had a good head of hair then..Said he was on the train as he didnt have a car at that point...2 years ago i wrote to him about nostalgic times...He wrote back enjoying the memories of those days.....PS we are both as bald as each other.now....

was my son's hero Butch Ray ...in his time at Chelsea wasn't the Crab ,,,had a great shot then

[Kez 2,727]

Thought i might add another short story from my chelsea past..Around the mid 80s we played millwall at the Bridge...Ten mins from the end i left to travel back to walthamstow where i then lived....on the way to the stn my neck was slashed by millwall fans...When Ken Bates read about it he sent myself n wife of the time 2 tickets for the old directors box...We played ipswich that day....Met some great old chelsea pensioners...Met some players..Ill just say D>R chatted the wife when i visited the loo...After the match Big Ken shook my hand and after grudgingly allowing a photo to be snapped politely sent me on my way..A good day was had

Interesting post must of been a traumatic experience. Good to hear you recovered though and Ken made a nice gesture. The club would be nothing today without him although I didn't agree with some of the stuff he did still we have to respect the guy. Also welcome to the forum

A similar story today ..Front page spread in the local Ipswich paper. Father buys two tickets for the game v Swansea... at the turnstiles they were told their tickets were invalid as they had been stolen in the post. Little boy naturally in floods of tears . Steward was kind but unable to help. Ray Wilkins was passing and asked what was wrong. On being told went to the ticket office . He was told match was sold out .. Only tickets available were in an executive box .. Ray took out his wallet and paid cash apparently £200 for the tickets. Of course father and son were delighted and had an added bonus as also in the box was Boris Becker. Ray's actions didn't surprise me ,,,A TRUE GENTLEMAN and now a hero in Ipswich

Ray Wilkins =

Legend that was mistreated by the club last season.

[Fulham Broadway 16,848]

His treatment of Matthew Harding (before and after) his death was very bad though. That is of course if the reports were correct.

When I met the late great Peter Osgood he had nothing but contempt for Bates, absolutely despised him. - he'd sacked Osgood as a meet and greet persona at the Bridge, (even though he was only on couple of hundred pounds a week) and had totally ignored Alan Hudson after he was hit by a car

[steve5221 91]

When I met the late great Peter Osgood he had nothing but contempt for Bates, absolutely despised him. - he'd sacked Osgood as a meet and greet persona at the Bridge, (even though he was only on couple of hundred pounds a week) and had totally ignored Alan Hudson after he was hit by a car

Is it true that he also wanted to ban the pensioners unless they bought thier tickets at full value?

[Fulham Broadway 16,848]

Is it true that he also wanted to ban the pensioners unless they bought thier tickets at full value?

Yes but think he retracted on that , as he realised that would be a cuntish action too far. He immediately removed the Pensioner logo from the programme though. Although he helped out our friend Brimstone here, (the cynic in me is gnawing away saying it was a PR stunt), the evidence is stacking up against Captain birdseye.

Saving the club he felt he could act with complete impunity in making as much cash for himself....and if that meant walking all over people who had created the club -Osgood, Hudson,Harding, the fans he couldnt care less.

[robdog 2,084]

Well he is definitely not an angel, but he did some good things for the club & probably his greatest act was finding Roman

[Fulham Broadway 16,848]

Abramovich found Bates

Apart from buying it for £1 -which to be fair a more genial benefactor would have served the club better -as far as I know he did precisely fuck all but upset all around him. He was sued on a weekly basis.

[steve5221 91]

Abramovich found Bates

Apart from buying it for £1 -which to be fair a more genial benefactor would have served the club better -as far as I know he did precisely fuck all but upset all around him. He was sued on a weekly basis.

The one I always found strange was the Vialli sacking, do you know anything about that??. We won the FA Cup beating Villa in the final, he then gave him a fair bit of money for players in preseason and sacked him after about 3 games. I think we were about 5th at the time to, very strange..

[Fulham Broadway 16,848]

The one I always found strange was the Vialli sacking, do you know anything about that??. We won the FA Cup beating Villa in the final, he then gave him a fair bit of money for players in preseason and sacked him after about 3 games. I think we were about 5th at the time to, very strange..

Yeah that was a weird one. At the time it was the old ''mutual consent'' bollocks that they always say to the press. I remember Vialiis agent saying it was because he'd lost the dressing room confidence etc.

Vialli was the son of an Italian multi billionaire - and what I've noticed about Bates over the years he doesnt discriminate with his bile -in fact he reserves a lot of it for people richer than himself. As soon as he'd made £17m profit from Abramovich -he called him a Russian shyster etc, I think he probably wanted to just show his power by sacking Vialli. Probably not all of it, but part of the reason...just that he has a high cuntage percentage.

On that, there was a brilliant alternative publication in the 80s called the Chelsea Independent -written by the fans. This si pre internet days, and it was 20p or something. It was fucking good read, written by the fans.

Bates didnt like it -(probably because he wasnt making any money out of it) and in the Chelsea Programme he called them ''bloody parasites''. Fairplay to the Chelsea Independent, they sued him and won, and he settled out of court

[steve5221 91]

Yeah that was a weird one. At the time it was the old ''mutual consent'' bollocks that they always say to the press. I remember Vialiis agent saying it was because he'd lost the dressing room confidence etc.

Vialli was the son of an Italian multi billionaire - and what I've noticed about Bates over the years he doesnt discriminate with his bile -in fact he reserves a lot of it for people richer than himself. As soon as he'd made £17m profit from Abramovich -he called him a Russian shyster etc, I think he probably wanted to just show his power by sacking Vialli. Probably not all of it, but part of the reason...just that he has a high cuntage percentage.

On that, there was a brilliant alternative publication in the 80s called the Chelsea Independent -written by the fans. This si pre internet days, and it was 20p or something. It was fucking good read, written by the fans.

Bates didnt like it -(probably because he wasnt making any money out of it) and in the Chelsea Programme he called them ''bloody parasites''. Fairplay to the Chelsea Independent, they sued him and won, and he settled out of court

Bates also became the first chairman in the PL to sack a manager.......Ian Porterfield, who although I was only a kid then thought he done alright, considering how shit we were at that time. Seem to remember Porterfield died not that long ago in his 50's...

[Fulham Broadway 16,848]

Bates also became the first chairman in the PL to sack a manager.......Ian Porterfield, who although I was only a kid then thought he done alright, considering how shit we were at that time. Seem to remember Porterfield died not that long ago in his 50's...

Didnt know that ! and he ran that Motel where he dressed up as a woman.

On old managers, Eddie McCreadie, our Ashley Cole of the 60s and 70s resigned as manager because the board wouldnt give him a company car