September 15 – Derby’s Glorious Twelfth and Tinker Bridge

Derby go goal crazy in Europe and Ranieri arrives at Chelsea in today’s trip down memory lane.

1976 – Derby’s Glorious Twelfth
European football ain’t like it used to be. Back in the day there was no group stages, no endless pots of television money and no red-button for interactive coverage. And English teams didn’t need to produce outrageous comebacks in order to win trophies. Today in 1976 Derby were proving this as they became the first English side to bag 12 goals in a European game. Read more here.

2000 – Tinker Bridge
IN his short spell as manager at pre-Abramovich Chelsea, Gianluca Vialli led the club to five trophies including the FA and League Cups. Naturally, the response of then-chairman Ken Bates to Vialli being Chelsea’s most successful manager in decades was to sack him.

Bates turned to another Italian to replace him and on this day in 2000 Claudio Ranieri signed a three-year contract to become the new boss at Stamford Bridge. The former Fiorentina, Valencia and Atletico Madrid coach went all Cantona-like when he confirmed he had been contacted by Chelsea. “I was flattered by the call,” he said, adding: “If there are roses they will bloom.” Click here for more words of wisdom.

Goals, goals, goals at the Baseball Ground