New York Blues

Since we created this page to honour Roy Bentley, we have had the good fortune to have met him twice. The first time was in the Shed Bar during our group trip in April 2005 where the photo on the right was taken, and we couldn't believe it when we saw it was then featured in his book "Roy Wonder" ! From left to right are Mike, Tuna, Curtis Kaminski (above Roy), Roy, Tom Klein, Jonathan and Tim Mayo. The second time we met Roy (below) was on February 5th 2006 on another group trip and by coincidence Roy was doing a booksigning in the Megastore. So Mike, Curtis, Jonathan and I all bought books and had them signed !

Roy Bentley is one of the greatest men ever to represent Chelsea. He was the inspirational captain who led the club to their first League Championship in 1955 and with his 'roving' game, was Chelsea's top goal scorer for a remarkable eight consecutive seasons ! Roy's book is available from Amazon UK.

By David Miller of the Daily Telegraph (Filed: 31/12/2004)

Roy Bentley is a west London folk hero: a member of the England team astonishingly beaten by the United States in the 1950 World Cup and centre-forward and captain of Chelsea's League championship-winning team of 1955.

Yet three years earlier, in company with the club's new manager Ted Drake, the former Arsenal and England centre-forward, Bentley initiated an era of tactical organisation and coaching at Stamford Bridge which has continued, with variations seldom less than entertaining or controversial, through a half-century culminating in the club's forthcoming centenary year.

It can be said without exaggeration that the partnership was, in its way, as significant as those between Matt Busby and full-back Johnny Carey at Manchester United or Bill Nicholson and Danny Blanchflower at Tottenham.

"When I look at Jose Mourinho's team," reflects Bentley - now 80 and living in retirement in Reading, where he was manager for six years and secretary for another seven - "I can see the fulfilment of Ted's original ambition, the maximum utilisation by each player of his particular talents."

Before Drake's arrival Bentley had never experienced any coaching, not with Bristol Rovers, where he began as a 14-year-old, or with Bristol City, where he moved as groundstaff boy to increase his GBP 2.50 wage by 10 shillings (50p), or even with Newcastle (transfer fee GBP 8,000).

"We never saw a ball except in matches," he says. "All we did was fitness. Nobody talked about tactics, not even Walter Winterbottom with England. Ted was manager at Reading, though they knew he was angling to join Chelsea. But before he would sign a contract at the Bridge, he spent hours on the golf course with me and our defender Johnny Harris, talking nothing but football and Chelsea's players. About how he wanted our wingers, Eric Parsons and Frank Blunstone, to come back deep when the opposition had the ball.

"About attacking variations, how he wanted them not always to cross the ball to the far post, but to hit sharp, low centres across the face of the six-yard box, just like the present Arsenal side - 'much more dangerous and you'll get more own goals as defences panic,' he would say. The secret, he insisted, was repetition of moves, even when things were going badly. "I'd talk for hours with Ted on the phone after each game, calculating how the team was developing. Mid-season in 1953-54, we lost a fine match with the powerful West Brom side 5-2, and Ted confidently said, 'It's coming!' At Christmas the next season we were lying 10th, but with a sustained unbeaten run, it always looked like we could do it."

Bentley considers that England's then reputation as world leaders, never mind the Hungary setbacks, had some justification. "Just look at the competition among central strikers. For my first cap, against Sweden in 1949, the three inside forwards were all strikers - Stan Mortensen, from Blackpool, myself and Jack Rowley, of Manchester United."

With Tom Finney, of Preston, and Bobby Langton, of Blackburn, on the wings, what a line England had ... In Bentley's position, additionally, there were Tommy Lawton (Chelsea), Jackie Milburn (Newcastle), Nat Lofthouse (Bolton) and Ronnie Allen (West Bromwich). Because of the range of skilful players, Bentley reasons, it was harder to get into the England side and much harder then to win the league with at least a dozen clubs potential challengers in any year. "Nobody could hope to go unbeaten like Arsenal last season," he says.

His recollection of the World Cup in Brazil is vivid. "A fantastic experience. I'd recently scored the only goal at Hampden, which caused Scotland's self-determined withdrawal, even though they'd still qualified by coming second in the British Championship. I was dumbfounded by the beauty of Rio, the Corcovado, the just finished Maracana stadium, but appalled by the poverty, with labourers and children living in holes in the ground. Amazingly, there was no planning on the field, how to use my roving style. After winning the opening match against Chile, Wilf Mannion said to me, 'I feel sorry for you'. We moved to Belo Horizonte to play the United States. We stayed at a luxurious mining camp ranch, but the pitch was bad and so was the referee. Their goalkeeper, an ice hockey goalminder, was rounded by Finney, yet allowed to turn round and rugby-tackle him. Losing 1-0, we were told by Stanley Rous, the FA secretary, not to complain because it would look unsportsmanlike."

Bentley served on destroyers and minesweepers in the Second World War, escorting the merchant fleets on the supply route to Murmansk during Russian winters, and won Navy boxing titles. He earned less from winning the championship with Chelsea than I did as a tyro sub-editor. Yet to this day he remains a hero, occasionally hosting elderly tourist visitors to the Bridge. Of some of today's self-obsessed stars, long on acquisition, short on loyalty, he observes unenviously: "Dear oh dear."

As everyone like's to keep telling us, yes we did win the League in black and white !

League Appearances     :  324

League Goals               :  128   

Total Appearances        :  367

Total Goals                  :  150                          

Roy joined Chelsea from Newcastle in 1948 for GBP 11,000 following medical advice that the cold north-eastern air was playing havoc with his lungs. He topped Chelsea's scoring charts for each of his eight seasons at the club, captaining the Blues to their first league championship in 1955. A quick and skilful centre forward with excellent ability in the air, Roy joined neighbours Fulham for GBP 8,500 in 1956.