Chelsea FC Number 9: Curses And Superstitions Over The Years
By Lee Fraser
Superstitions.
Everyone has them.
Don’t walk under a ladder, never let a black cat cross your path, don’t walk on a crack in the pavement/sidewalk, never wear the #9 shirt for Chelsea FC, never see the bride on the weddi…………
Hold on a moment!
Never wear the #9 shirt for Chelsea FC??????
More from The Pride of London
- Bournemouth 0-0 Chelsea player ratings: Abysmal, reckless, wasteful
- Bournemouth 0-0 Chelsea: 3 Blues talking points
- Bournemouth vs Chelsea: 1 Blue Mauricio Pochettino should drop
- Bournemouth vs Chelsea: 3 Blues who must start
- Predicted Chelsea lineup vs Bournemouth: Palmer starts in 4-2-3-1
Surely that cannot be right, how can the main striker’s shirt number for the top club in the country be unlucky?
How can the King of Stamford Bridge, Peter Osgood’s shirt be considered unlucky?
This “curse” of the Chelsea FC #9 shirt needs investigating and putting to bed so let me knock on wood and hopefully dispel this nonsense about superstitions.
The notion that Chelsea FC ruin strikers has been continually dug up by desperate green eyed opposition fans and Daily Mail journalists long before we decided that El Nino Fernando Torres was the answer to our prayers.
Indeed it stretches back to pre-Premier League days when players started to be given allocated fixed shirt numbers. Before then the players were given a shirt number on a match by match basis, normally decided by what position they were playing that day. Obviously some players had preferences but it always avoided the ludicrous situation of Khalid Boulharouz wearing the #9 because it was the only 1st team number left when he signed!
So looking at the Premier League years of Chelsea FC #9’s will of course prove once and for all that there isn’t a curse ……………
It all started so well with Chelsea FC’s very own “Ice Cream Man” Tony Cascarino scoring on his debut in a 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace, but it was a false dawn and he struggled with a measly 8 goals in 45 appearances.
With the departure of Tony, Mark Stein took over the #9 and chipped in with 10 goals in 39 appearances, not exactly setting the world on fire but not too shabby either.
Up next stepped Mr Baldilocks himself, Gianluca Vialli who lived up to his billing by scoring on average just under a goal every other game and ensuring the #9 shirt became a big seller in the shirt stakes for the first time.
Then came the start of the “curse” with Chris Sutton………….
Sutton, Chelsea FC’s version of an ashtray on a motorbike
Any Chelsea FC fan of a certain age will remember looking forward to the English member of Blackburn Rover’s SAS forward team with relish, and will also remember the disbelief when he proved himself as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike! 39 appearances, 3 goals sums up the painful memory of our £10 million wearer of the #9 shirt.
As bad as Sutton was the next owner of the #9 was brilliant.
Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink over the next 4 seasons lit up the scoring charts and thankfully banished the memory of Sutton and re-ignited Chelsea FC fans love affair with the famous #9 in the Royal Blue.
After Jimbo’s departure the #9 lost its appeal through a long line of nothingness, Mateja Kezman and Hernan Crespo tried and failed to live up to Jimbo’s billing and even Chelsea FC decided to give up on the significance of the number by giving Khalid Boulharouz, the mighty Steve Sidwell and the young Franco Di Santo the shirt to wear. Of course this meant that for 3 seasons Chelsea FC’s #9 didn’t score a goal! Actually make that 4 seasons in a row because in the 2009/10 season Chelsea FC didn’t even have a #9!
More from Chelsea FC All-Time Lists
- A Chelsea lineup by top flight league appearances in 4-2-3-1 formation
- 3 Reasons why Chelsea should hire Julian Nagelsmann
- Rating every signing from Chelsea’s £490million spending spree
- The top 10 Chelsea signings of all-time
- Chelsea’s 3 best and worst FIFA 23 ratings
And then came Torres!
Do I even need to talk about him?
He IS the main reason for all the stories about Chelsea FC’s curse regarding the #9 shirt.
A renowned goal scorer, he was the missing piece that would propel Chelsea FC to the dizzy heights of World and Universal Champions for the next decade …………
Well OK, maybe the hype was a bit too much, as was the price, and oh boy did we soon come crashing back to earth again a la Chris Sutton stylie!
So does all this mean that the #9 shirt for Chelsea FC is cursed?
Does it mean that Chelsea FC have to plant 4 leaf clovers in Stamford Bridge’s penalty spots or build a wishing well next to the player’s tunnel for the #9 to chuck a coin at (and hope he gets it in) every time he takes to the pitch?
Chelsea FC won the Premier League in 2009/10 and 2014/15 seasons without a #9 so will we be superstitious and decree that we will never have a #9 again?
I think the legend Stevie Wonder summed it up best in his song when he sang:
Very superstitious, writings on the wall,
Very superstitious, ladders bout’ to fall,
Thirteen month old baby, broke the lookin’ glass
Seven years of bad luck, the good things in your past
When you believe in things that you don’t understand,
Then you suffer,
Superstition ain’t the way
So what happens next for the #9 shirt?
Diego Costa likes his #19 shirt and so won’t take it (hopefully)
Radamel Falcao seems to like the #9 shirt having worn it briefly at Monaco and Manchester United and of course for Columbia, so will he wear it when he signs for Chelsea FC?
I’m now off to put my lucky underpants on before holding my breath as I walk past the local cemetery whilst desperately looking for a shooting star so I can wish Chelsea FC a very lucky and successful 2015/16 season,
Superstitions, who needs them!
Next: Chelsea FC Transfers: Gael Kakuta Moves To Sevilla FC