46. John Hollins: 1963-75, 1983-84
John Hollins is a player of incredible durability and longevity who played professional football at a high level for nearly 25 years. He started his career as a youth player in the Chelsea FC academy and graduated to the first team in 1963. A key player in the exciting Chelsea sides of that era, Hollins went on to make 592 appearances and held the consecutive appearances record until it was broken some twenty years later by Frank Lampard.
For his hard-running and positive attitude, Hollins was handed the club’s captaincy and helped the Blues win the FA Cup in 1970. He was not much of a goalscorer overall but did manage to score 17 goals in 1972. Hollins was destined to be a one-club man but relegation in 1975 forced the Blues to sell off some of their best players and he made a move to QPR and later to Arsenal.
Hollins returned to Chelsea in 1983 to help the Blues earn promotion back to the First Division but called it quits shortly after at the age of 39. By the time he had retired Hollins had played in 939 matches in his 25 year career, a fantastic accomplishment for any player.
Not long after retiring, Hollins was appointed as Chelsea FC manager in a reign that lasted three years. He lead a title challenge in 1985-86 and lifted the now-defunct Full Members Cup but was sacked after the club was relegated in 1988. It was a poor way to end Hollins’s career with Chelsea but he has since found moderate success managing clubs like Swansea City and Stockport County.
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