General opinion on Ken Bates?

[CFCJosh 7]

I wasn't alive when Ken Bates was owner/chairman of our club, so it'd be greatly appreciated if some of you who were there could give me your opinion on him.

All opinions appreciated.

[zolayes 14,489]

It's late ,,will do this in the morning

[Spike 12,049]

Wasn't he the guy that put a little money into the club but also wanted to put electric fences up?

[robdog 2,084]

IMHO he is a CFC hero. If I ever was to meet him, I would shake his hand & get myself a pict w/ him. Hell he even advised the fans to keep their CPO shares, because it keeps the Blues @ The Bridge. In fact I do believe he still has a Penthouse in one of the CFC hotels over looking the pitch. No reason to hate on him.

[hjperdeath 2,226]

We'd almost lost Bridge, but Ken Bates brought it back after a long fight and introduced CPO shares. We also had a rather successful period under him.That's the good side.

Negatives :

Shed End was made small and he introduced the hotels and apartments around it. It seems like one of the big reasons why we can't expand and we're put in a situation where we might have to leave the Bridge.

The subsequent banning of Matthew Harding (who invested 27 million pounds in the club upon Ken Bates's request) from the stadium and branding him as an evil man. 'I don't believe evil should triumph and he was an evil man...This is a much happier ship at Chelsea now he's no longer around' (just a year after his death) didn't sit down with Chelsea fans either. We went on to name one of our stands as the Matthew Harding.

He also banned Ron Harris (Chopper man), and Osgood from the grounds. Obviously not going to go down well with us.

He wanted to control the Head Hunters hooligan element in the Stamford Bridge crowd by using electric fences. Pretty sure Chelsea fans were ridiculed to be compared to poultry. The Greater London Council rejected the idea and he called them 'cretins' .

A lot of people also had a problem with him when he modified the Chelsea logo in a bid to modernize the club.

His creation of Chelsea Village plc was a bad business move considering that he was a businessman. We ran upto debts of 3 million which eventually grew to 80, and the man who rescued us from debt brought us down into it again. Roman initially purchased 49% of village plc and the following month he kept buying shares until he could take it in private hands.

But I'm pretty sure everyone was initally pretty happy. He rocked the boat with what he did later on though. I wasn't however alive then though, I was to small to really care about what happened in the background. Someone like zolaeyes , TOPTB or our senior members could explain it better.

[The Skipper 20,593]

Plenty of controversies surrounding this man but IMO he must be commended for saving CFC and Stamford Bridge with the creation of CPO, and for also selling the club to Roman. Whilst he had his funny ways, it wouldn't be far fetched to call him an unorthodox CFC hero indeed.

[The only place to be 11,313]

As a person he is probably massively flawed, a megalomaniac, an occasionally petty man and from my own experience and a few others I've heard, a bit of a git.

And that's probably the reason he managed to turn the club around from what it was when he acquired it to where we were in the late-90s and early - 00s. For 20 years the club was mismanaged and under-performed to the point we were extremely close to going out of existence but from the point he bought it there was a massive change. That's not to say he was perfect but it's hard to slate a guy when you have those results.

Things like the electric fencing were indicative of the extreme side he had but it was an extreme solution to a very real problem that existed at the time. Of course he did take over when English football was about to change radically, but he's very much responsible for us being around to take advantage of that and we prospered at that time.

Of course there are issues with the whole Chelsea Village thing and the hotels but personally it's hard to dislike the guy too much because from when I started going in the early-90s it's been nothing but improvement year on year.

[The only place to be 11,313]

And he does stuff like this

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2718793/Former-Chelsea-Leeds-owner-Ken-Bates-donates-10-000-help-pay-surgery-disabled-toddler-play-football.html

A complicated character to say the least.

[Fulham Broadway 16,853]

Might have saved the club, but he missed the chance to buy the club for £1m when land in West Brompton cost £200 000 an acre. He also nearly bankrupted the club in 2003 before RA took over, so, an astute businessman ?

I will never forgive him for sacking Osgood as a meet and greet in around 2002. I met Osgood , drinking with him for about two hours and he was down and bitter about it. He also said how Bates had turned away Ian Hutchinson -Hutch ! a fucking CFC legend.

Lets be clear about this Ken Bates has never done anything that isnt for Ken Bates.

[CFCJosh 7]

Might have saved the club, but he missed the chance to buy the club for £1m when land in West Brompton cost £200 000 an acre. He also nearly bankrupted the club in 2003 before RA took over, so, an astute businessman ?

I will never forgive him for sacking Osgood as a meet and greet in around 2002. I met Osgood , drinking with him for about two hours and he was down and bitter about it. He also said how Bates had turned away Ian Hutchinson -Hutch ! a fucking CFC legend.

Lets be clear about this he has never done anything that isnt for Ken Bates.

Abramovich seems to treat club legends with respect which they deserve, which is obviously an improvement from Bates along with the s**t load of money he's pumped into the club.

[Skau13 21]

Bates was a bit of a tit, but he did some good things for the club. Met him before a home game some years back and he was outside the stadium shaking hands and talking to fans

[boshman 1,073]

Wasn't alive? He left the club in 2003. How old are you?

The long and short of it is he took us from the bottom of the 2nd division to the CL in 20 years so can't be too hard on the man.

Yes, ridiculous debts were ran up which took us to the edge of extinction but that left us perfect for the Roman takeover. So in a way the debts worked out well

[boshman 1,073]

I wasn't alive when Ken Bates was owner/chairman of our club, so it'd be greatly appreciated if some of you who were there could give me your opinion on him.

All opinions appreciated.

I see you would have only been 4 when he left. I have answered my own question lol.

[CFCJosh 7]

I see you would have only been 4 when he left. I have answered my own question lol.

In the sense that I was too young to form an opinion..

[boshman 1,073]

In the sense that I was too young to form an opinion..

I realised that when i checked out your profile. Thats why i added the 2nd post and said 'I've answered my own question'

[BlueLion. 21,491]

Bates was a bit of a tit. He had his own vested interest and the clashes he had with Matthew Harding, for instance, demonstrate he was a very egocentric man. However he did a lot of good for the club - we can't forget he helped save the club from bankruptcy and oversaw a period of relative success on the pitch. So whilst there are very negative views about the bloke, he did at least help to put Chelsea on the map. He was a bit of a slimy worm though - he'd pose for photographs and talk to the supporters just for a bit of positive PR. He did a lot to keep us at the Bridge, but he can never be "popular" with the fans for his treatment of club legends like Osgood and Chopper Harris, and for his run-ins with Matthew Harding - the original Mr. Chelsea, who had the fans' interests as his sole agenda. Matthew Harding was one of the last "good men" in football and Bates did his best to kick him into touch. So Bates has a bittersweet place in my memory - he did some wonders for the club (indeed keeping us afloat and at The Bridge are two things he should be commended for), but his desire to make Chelsea a brand (Chelsea Village, what a disaster that was...) and his run-ins with club officials and legends means he'll always be remembered as a bit of a sod at the same time.

[zolayes 14,489]

Most of my views on Ken have already been stated by others. In a word Ken was a Maverick and still is .

His faults were numerous as others have mentioned so I will not repeat them except to say I think many were caused by

the vindicative he often showed.

He also was very quick to hire and fire coaches .

To his qualities I would add the appointment of Hoddle (a Spurs hero ) who started our revival . Then the signings of Gullit .Zola

and Viallli plus the appointment of Ranieri.

So much to be thankful for.

Ken Bates a Curate's Egg

[The only place to be 11,313]

He'll never be loved, and he'll even be hated in some quarters, but it's very hard to untangle the progression we had not just on the pitch but off it from him.

Sure you could look at other influences for some of those and even find much to criticise but there's also a very strong case to be made that we're not where we are now without him - even so far as to say we might not even exist without him. The stories I've heard from the early days of his tenure are of a down and dirty fight for survival, something that requires a certain mettle. I tend to believe that the resolve to pull us through those dark days comes from a similar place that the petty, somewhat cuntish other things he did comes from.