“Frank’s created a fantastic squad, they’re just going to get better” – Chelsea News interview former Blue David Speedie

In the first instalment of a new series of interviews, Chelsea News meets former Blues striker David Speedie, who was a prolific goalscorer in a deadly attack alongside Pat Nevin and Kerry Dixon from 1982 to 1987.

Jamie and Will from CN sat down with him on Zoom to talk about Chelsea past, present and future:

Will: Thank you so much for chatting to us David, it’s much appreciated.

David: It’s no problem. Pleasure.

W: We have all kinds of things to talk to you about but really we’re interested in your time at Chelsea given that we’re a Chelsea blog and a Chelsea website.

D: Yeah. Five great years.

W: Five great years. And that’s what I was going to say to start with, you played for a lot of different clubs, you’re not the kind of person who spent 80% of their career in one place, you moved around quite a lot. Do you feel particular affinity for one club more than another? Where does Chelsea rank in terms of your career and how you felt about your time in different places?

D: Well Chelsea’s top of the list for sure, having spent five years there. I didn’t want to leave really but I was sort of forced into a situation that I didn’t like and didn’t feel comfortable in. I still had five years left on my contract when I left. I’d signed a new contract less than two years before I actually left. But, when you’re a strong team with great characters, and someone comes in and tries to tell you that they’re trying to put some discipline in the team, it’s pretty laughable, and that’s what happened at the time.

W: So it was disagreements with the manager…

D: (Interrupting) Not so much with the manager, I got on great with John as a player and as a coach and when he took over as manager I didn’t have a problem – it was the other guy.

Jamie: Do you think that you were the only person within the squad who held that view or were there others?

D: Certainly not. There were other players. Nigel Spackman left, before me. Pat Nevin left eventually. A few others I believe, around about the same time. We were a high-flying team at the time and the fact that John Neal became ill and moved upstairs into the boardroom certainly didn’t help the situation. But, we didn’t need discipline, we had discipline. We had a squad of players that ran and ran until they dropped and for someone to send you off in training for swearing… pathetic.

J: Do you think that decision to change things was at all justified when you think about the success Chelsea had, particularly from 1995 onwards?

D: Well, we’re talking about a generation practically before that. When I left it was 1987 and when I left and several other players left, Chelsea got relegated. I actually had a meeting with Ken Bates after my career finished at Elland Road when he was in charge there. He said to me over dinner ‘you were right’. I said ‘what do you mean?’ he said ‘I should have got rid of the other people, and not you’. I’ve never known Ken Bates to ever admit that he’s wrong ever in my life – which was quite funny. It made my day actually.

W: I’m not sure many have heard that, that’s for sure.

D: They haven’t – that’s why I’m laughing!

W: So John Neal moved upstairs and he had an impression from inside the dressing room that people weren’t taking things seriously and there was more potential to unlock, or that having been part of it he now felt excluded?

D: No it was nothing to do with John Neal. It was great for him still to be part of the club but he didn’t really want to take on that role. God rest his soul. His heart and soul was in the dressing room. He hated it upstairs along with Ian McNeil. It was the other fella, I don’t know what he was trying to do Ernie, Ernie Wally. But, it didn’t work. He lost the respect of the players and he never gained it back. I couldn’t play for somebody like that. To send you off in training a couple of days before a game, for swearing – crazy!

W: It sounds like there was more behind it, like there was a lot more going on.

D: He was trying to dig people out and find out their characters. He pushed it too far in training one day and he sent me off for a couple of minutes. He was giving deliberate decisions to wind people up. I’m quite easily wound up as everybody knows that’s watched me play.

W: It must have been interesting playing through the period that you did. You saw the game change so much and I can imagine towards the end of your career you saw people coming in with all kinds of different ideas and concepts that you never would have dreamt of back when you were starting out. Looking at how the game has changed since then, do you think it was an interesting time to play through or would you rather have played now?

D: You ask any player, even way before my time. Conditions wise, on the playing surfaces, people say the game’s quicker, the game’s not quicker, the surfaces are better and the game’s moving quicker. Nobody could run faster than Kerry Dixon when we played. I remember we used to train at Stamford Bridge on a Friday, I remember Doug Rougvie digging Kerry out saying that he was quicker than him. Kerry said ‘I’ll tell you what I’ll do, for a tenner, I’ll give you 18-yards head start, full length of the pitch’, and Kerry was running backwards before he got to the opposite 18-yard-box. Kerry could have been an Olympic gold medallist, the 100 metres, no problem. People don’t run quicker, it’s just the surfaces. Training’s different, the facilities are different, it’s fantastic. Since the evolution of the Premier League, it’s magnificent.

W: Do you think the speed that Kerry had was part of the partnership that you made, and what made things work between you two? His speed and your heading, was that the basis of the combination?

D: It was a telepathic understanding. I knew what he was going to do and he knew what I was going to do. We were always going to play to each other’s strengths, even though we did have a little spat after a game. We played Man City at Stamford Bridge and we had a bit of a tete-a-tete. The manager called us in because it nearly got to fisticuffs. John Neal started laughing and he says ‘you don’t know what you have got. You do that and he does that and you make it magic. You’re both magic together’. We just shook hands and we went from strength to strength after that. That was in Kerry’s first season of joining.

W: And you went on to be hugely successful together. Even if you do have a falling out on the pitch or off the pitch, it’s all about those connections…

D: That happens all the time, even today. It’s a physical game, people are getting stuck in and they want to win a place in the first-team. That’s what it’s all about. From becoming an apprentice, playing in the reserves, the U21s, whatever, you want to be in the first-team and you want to be a part of that squad. Sometimes you get carried away in training. I never went through a week my entire career when there’s not been two people coming together in training.

J: Do you think that the current game’s missing that edge a little bit? At Chelsea it’s brilliant to see, you look at the game against Tottenham at the weekend, we had Tammy Abraham and Mason Mount starting, academy products of course, Reece James as well. As archaic as it may sound to bring it up, at the full-time whistle we saw shirt-swapping and handshakes and hugs. Do you think players with Chelsea DNA, when coming into those sort of fixtures, would get an edge if they understood the magnitude of that game, and were willing to fight for the three points?

D: I think the home-based players certainly do, but some of the other players that have come from abroad maybe don’t get that passion between two London rivals like Chelsea and Tottenham. But, it was a great game and it’s just a pity there wasn’t any goals in it. Frank’s created a fantastic squad. They’re just going to get better, we’ve got a few that are getting older, but older and wiser. That’s going to help the young lads through it.

J: I think a lot of the success in the past few weeks has come from the summer signings getting back in the squad, settling down, beginning to understand what Frank wants from them a lot more. Who have you been most impressed with out of everyone Chelsea brought in over the summer?

D: Well I’m just gutted that Billy Gilmour’s not fit to be playing! He came on the scene and I’ve missed him. He doesn’t give the ball away. He wants the ball for 90 minutes and that’s a rarity in the game today. I’m going to compare with him Pirlo, the Italian midfield player, in that every time he plays the ball, he wants it back. It doesn’t matter where he’s played the ball, whether it be from one side of the field to the other, he’s the closest man ready to receive the ball. That’s who Billy reminds me of, Pirlo. Although, he’s a lot smaller.

W: Did you know anything about Billy before he came to Chelsea? Did you hear about him as a kid up at Rangers?

D: Yes. There was a lot of rumblings about Billy Gilmour up at Rangers and it would only have been a matter of time before top club in the Premier League was to take him on. I’m just glad it was Chelsea, because I can’t wait to see him back playing.

W: Well it sounds like it’ll be soon. Lampard was saying today maybe he’ll feature tomorrow maybe off the bench. We’ve all been excited and the timing of the injury was so terrible, just when he was getting into the team. I know a few Rangers fans as well and that’s one thing we can really bond over. As much as they would have loved to have kept him, it’s great for them to see him come and succeed in the Premier League.

D: We’ve got some great players upfront, too. Tammy and Callum, they’ve got their whole lives ahead of them and I hope they sign long, long term contracts at Chelsea. Mason Mount, fantastic midfield player, can play upfront as well in my opinion. It’s just great to see so many young players coming through the ranks.

W: There were a few people complaining about Tammy’s attempts at winning headers at the weekend. They should have got you in to teach them a lesson or two before the Spurs game!

D: I would love to be a coach down there teaching the strikers. I’m sure the coaches down there must be giving them some advice. Head the ball with your eyes, that’s what I was taught from a very young age. Head it with your eyes. You don’t take your eyes off the ball until you’ve headered it. I think sometimes he might be throwing his head at it. Sometimes he’s throwing his head back and that little jerk, the ball’s gone past and he’s not connected properly.

J: You’d think there was no one better for him to learn from than Olivier Giroud, but obviously Giroud hasn’t been in the picture of late. Do you think it’s justified that Tammy – obviously it’s a more long-term view from Lampard – but is it justified that Tammy is being included ahead of Giroud?

D: Well I’m not at the training ground and seeing players every day. When I played you were picked on a Saturday by the way that you trained during the week and how you competed during training. He might be finishing and scoring from all angles, but it’s all a matter of confidence. If you miss a few chances, it gets into your head, and what he’s got do is not let it get into his head. What he’s got to do is keep his eyes on the ball all the way through contact and just guide it into the goal instead of just throwing your head at it. That’s the best advice I could give him.

W: It’s all about desire as well. I’m about the same height as Tammy and I’m absolutely terrible in the air because I don’t want it enough, I’m scared of the elbows, I don’t time it right, there’s so much more to it, as you know, than just being tall. Reading the flight of the ball, the timing and the desire to throw your head in there, get your head on it, don’t worry about any of the defenders or where they are, just focus on heading it in the net.

D: What I don’t see sometimes is players busting a gut to get into the box. I saw the other day Cavani came on for Man United. Now, if you watch that guy, take a leaf out of his book. As soon as that foot’s being pulled back out wide, he’s on his bike and he’s busting a gut because he’s desperate to score. If you’re more desperate to score, you’ll get in there more and score more goals. Looking at our players, they’re not busting a gut, I don’t think, to get in and score.

W: Is that just because of desire or is that the system…

D: (Interrupting) Inexperience, which will come in time. They’re giving their all. Running back defensively, making it hard for defenders. But, on the front foot, we’re probably not alert enough in and around the box, as strikers. Kerry Dixon would have had 20 goals already by now.

J: I’m sure he would have done. Do you not think out of our three striking options, Abraham, Giroud and Timo Werner as our most natural ones, do you think Werner has justified more minutes in a central role? Lampard has played him out wide left for most of the season so far.

D: He can play anywhere that kid. He can play anywhere. He’s never static, he’s always on the move. And when he is static, it’s for a reason, he slows the defender down and then he’s gone again. He’s a very clever player for his age.

W: I’d like to see him race Kerry Dixon at his peak!

D: How much do you want on it? He might win now because Kerry’s 50-odd-years-old.

W: (Laughing) Well, whether on an old pitch or an old pitch, and we’d have to think about what boots they’re wearing, I’d like to see that.

D: It’d be interesting, but my money would be on Kerry Dixon, on any surface.

W: We’ve got something to plan for the future then.

J: We can pencil that one in for sure. I look forward to that.

D: He might win. Kerry’s knocking on, what is he now, 56?

W: He sounds like the exact sort of player that would have done well in the modern game. It’s always interesting to think of the players of the past. Some were so successful in their era and you imagine them transported to now and wonder who would have been better and who would have been worse. How would you have been doing on these beautiful grassy pitches, with soft modern defenders, would you have been able to get one over them, you think?

D: Well you don’t know. I might have done, I might not. I think I would have been quite a good player on these surfaces. I wasn’t a bad player on the crap pitches.

W: It’s all connected though. On the crap pitches the ball gets played into the air a lot more.

D: I’ve actually gone round a goalkeeper before, I think it was against Norwich at Stamford Bridge, and slotted the ball in, ran away to celebrate and it stopped on the line in the mud. Pat Nevin took a penalty and I don’t think it reached the line. It got stuck in the mud at Stamford Bridge, at the Shed End. He got some right stick about that.

W: At least there was no people filming it with camera phones. With all the stick he got, imagine the stick he’d have got now if someone had an iPhone on him.

D: I’m sure it’s still on film somewhere.

J: It would have been up on our Facebook pages no doubt.

D: I used to fancy myself as a goalkeeper as well until I got chipped. I went in goal and got chipped and I was devastated. I’m quite good in the air and I’m quite good at jumping but I got chipped. I think that was against Norwich as well.

J: You know Martin Keown once said you were better in the air than Cristiano Ronaldo. He had you on a list alongside Barry Ferguson, Les Ferdinand and Marouane Fellaini. Make of that what you will.

D: Did he really? Well that’s nice of him to say. Thanks Martin.

J: Do you think there’s any other areas of your game that you had the edge on Ronaldo?

D: Desire. Defending. Desire to win the ball back after losing it. That’s the only thing I could probably fault on.

J: And more importantly, would he beat Kerry Dixon in a race?

D: It’d be close. That would be close, but Kerry would still be up there I tell you now. Honest to God he was under 11 seconds I think for the 100 metres. Or 100 yards, I don’t know, whatever it was back then.

J: Just to completely change topic but stay on the subject of speed – Tariq Lamptey, a Chelsea academy product, has been making headlines at Brighton this season. He left to pursue first-team football, which has turned out to be a pretty good decision for him.

D: That’s what you do. If you can’t get in the team, and the fact that the management team at Chelsea are allowing him to go, to better his career, you look at our squad at Chelsea and, blimey, it’s one of the strongest in the league, in all departments.

J: And Reece James isn’t a bad option at right-back himself is he.

D: That’s right. At the end of the day, that’s a thing of the past. He’s gone, and that’s it. Reece James now is England material. One goes and the other one kicks off and is playing in the England team.

J: And I think ever since Abramovich took over, if there’s ever been a time where we can’t really complain about young players getting their opportunities, it’s been under Lampard hasn’t it.

D: I think Frank is a cute cookie. He knows his stuff. He will have learnt a lot from his uncle and his dad over the years. He’s getting the right advice from some really good people. I played for Harry [Redknapp] at West Ham when I was on loan and what a great guy he is. A great man-manager. [Lampard] did things right by going to Derby and starting off at a lesser club. As soon as the opportunity arose, I thought is it too soon for Chelsea? It is going to be a disaster? No it’s not, it’s been an absolute joy to watch him on the touchline the way he conducts himself. He’s a credit to Chelsea football club.

W: He always has been. Jamie and I grew up with him as an absolute hero and I know what you mean, it was scary when he came here as manager, you just think ‘I don’t want you to ruin this’, but we never should have doubted him because he’s succeeded at everything he’s ever put his mind to.

D: I never had any doubts, I just didn’t know if it was too early for him or not. At the end of the day, he might go 20 games without winning a game and gets the sack. That’s how the game is. At the minute we’re lying in third place in the league and it’s all to play for.

W: What do you think our prospects are for the rest of the season, can you see a trophy coming?

D: Absolutely. If we can get this striker thing sorted out. I think Giroud maybe should play for his experience, but probably not every game. Just to help the young lads on – and to teach them, play upfront with him. You can learn a lot from an experienced player.

W: There’s a long way to go, we’re doing so well, it’s going to be hard to catch Liverpool but we’ve got the squad for it now. We can’t say we don’t have enough players and enough depth.

D: Every department is strong. Every department has got experience. It’s looking really good. I’m really optimistic about the season. Liverpool have slipped up a couple of times, they’re beatable, I’m fearing Jose. He just turns everything round, no matter where he goes. I don’t know if he gets fed up after a while but let’s hope he doesn’t pip us to the post this season.

W: That’s the scariest thought, isn’t it? That would be the darkest way to lose – on the final day to Jose.

D: One of my ambitions, believe it or not, is to meet up with Jose.

W: What would you like to talk to him about?

D: I’d like to know how he got a job in the first place in football, having not been playing really.

W: Yeah – well Bobby Robson.

D: Bobby Robson, yeah. Unbelievable. And good luck to him. He’s been amazing.

W: It wouldn’t be the same without him, no matter what you think.

D: He got a lot of stick and he gets a lot of stick but he’s a genius. You can’t knock it.

W: On and off the pitch the entertainment value is priceless. The little viral clips and digs at different managers. People forget he invented the expression ‘parking the bus’ or at least brought it from Portugal. People thought that was something that’s been around for years, but no, that’s something that Jose said in 2004 that’s never gone away.

J: He’s the Premier League pantomime villain, isn’t he? The one that nobody thinks we need but you’d feel his absence if he was gone wouldn’t you.

D: Absolutely. He’s some guy, and I’ve not even met him.

W: Well I very much hope you get the chance to meet him one day.

J: It’d be quite the dinnertime conversation, wouldn’t it?

D: He probably doesn’t even remember me.

W: I think Jose was too busy over in Portugal or that point, or in Barcelona with Bobby Robson.

D: Definitely.

W: To go back to the current team, it’s all so positive. We’re so set up to win a trophy of some kind. We came so close in the FA Cup last year.

D: If we don’t beat Morecambe, there’s something wrong. Although, I said that at Coventry when we were playing Sutton United. We got beat 2-1. Even though, I think we were in their 18-yard box for a large amount of the game, but we couldn’t score. That’s just what the FA Cup brings, there’s a possible upset, but hopefully not this time.

W: Well Billy Gilmour will probably get a chance in that game. The poor Morecambe players are going to be running all over the shop trying to get the ball but I don’t think they’re going to manage it.

J: It’s probably not appreciated enough nowadays the FA Cup, is it?

D: No, it’s not the glamour and glitz that it used to be. Everybody wanted to play in the FA Cup final at Wembley, now it’s the Premier League or the Champions League. It’s the bridesmaid, not the bride anymore.

W: I think Chelsea fans always love the FA Cup, though. It’s lost more meaning to other teams than to us. Growing up, before Roman came, my first ever game as a Chelsea fan was the Di Matteo cup final. It was always something that really mattered to me. And even after we’ve become Champions League contenders, I’ve never forgotten the FA Cup and it’s always been important to me and I think to Chelsea fans of all ages.

D: I think the British players are really still enthralled by it, I imagine, but a lot of the lads that have come in from abroad don’t really understand it, the history or the glitz and glam that we’ve had over the years. When I was a kid I used to go out and have a kick around at half-time. I’d watch the game, have a kick around at half-time, go in for the second-half and then re-enact the entire game with my mates. It was something that you always wanted to do, play in a cup final at Wembley.

W: Well hopefully we’ll have one this year and hopefully there’ll be plenty of fans back in there as well. The FA Cup is all about the people and the stories, and not having the fans there would be really hollow, I think.

D: It would be tragic mate. This pandemic’s doing my head in. I’m just glad we can play golf tomorrow, otherwise I’d be suicidal. I’m glad I got a dog as well. I got a dog during this pandemic. He’s walking the legs off me.

W: Well it’s been fantastic to talk to you, thanks so much for your time.

D: No problem Will. You’re welcome any time. Cheers Jamie.

W: Take it easy, enjoy your golf, and hopefully we’ll all be celebrating a Chelsea trophy come May, in some full stadiums.

D: Well we’ve got the Champions League game coming up haven’t we, tomorrow night?

W: Fingers crossed for Billy Gilmour off the bench, it’s what we’d all love to see!

D: Well I’ve missed him, I really have. He’s a joy to watch. Hopefully he comes back and doesn’t get injured again.

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