Episode 255: Remembering Ken Bates!

Fellow Chelsea supporters, here at the Blue Day podcast, I am delighted to welcome back a good friend of the show.

He's a renowned author and journalist, Harry Harris, for a truly special episode.

Harry, welcome back.

How are we today?

Feeling very blue and Chelsea-ish today.

Well, that's perfect for our theme today.

Perfect.

Just the reason for this episode, folks, is we are going to talk about one individual who was remembered well in the game yesterday at Stamford Bridge between Chelsea and Brighton before the match.

And that was the former chairman, Mr. Ken Bates.

So this is an episode where we will go through some of the timelines while Ken was in charge of Chelsea and a few potential rumours that we're looking to sort of clear up.

So, Harry, are you ready?

Very ready.

Yes, very ready indeed.

All these stories, Keith, appear in this new book that I've been telling you about.

It's called The Black Book.

And there'll be a lot of people hiding behind their sofas.

If dear old Ken was alive, he might be hiding behind his sofa in Monte Carlo as well.

We were still very good friends right at the end.

We went to a Christmas lunch only very recently.

And I've been keeping in touch with him over the last few years and still in touch with Susanna at the moment, actually.

So the podcast where we've done other Remembrance episodes as well in the past, which you can have a look on our archives, we would like to pay our own special tribute to the one and only Ken Bate too.

For those that might not have known or might not have been aware, he was chairman of Chelsea Football Club from 1982 to 2003.

And Harry, when did you first meet Ken and what was your early opinion of him?