Kerry DIXON

 During negotiations for the sale of Kerry Dixon from Reading to Chelsea the chairmen of the two respective clubs reached stalemate. Having agreed to pay a fee of £150, 000 for the prolific centre-forward, Chelsea's Ken Bates baulked at the request from his Reading counterpart Roger Smee that there should be a clause inserted into the deal whereby The Blues would pay a further £25, 000 if Dixon was capped twice by England whilst with the club. After a sleepless night deliberating, and with other clubs ready to pounce, Bates agreed. He eventually had to pay the money but he might just consider it to be the best £25, 000 he ever spent. The job ahead of the new man was huge. With Chelsea having almost suffered the ignominy of relegation to Division Three the previous season, Kerry was charged with the task of scoring the goals which would help transform their under-achieving team into one which would be promoted within three years.

In the event, Chelsea achieved that aim at the end of his first season and by the time he left the club nine years later Kerry was the second highest goal scorer in Chelsea's history, behind only Bobby Tambling. Blessed with the natural attributes which make a top striker; two good feet, outstanding aerial ability and blistering pace, Dixon's impact on his new team was simply stunning. Two goals on his debut in a 5-0 opening day thrashing of Derby County set a high standard which he managed to maintain throughout the season. Given exceptional assistance by his hard-working strike partner David Speedie, with whom he had an almost telepathic understanding, and a steady supply of accurate crosses from the creative Pat Nevin, Kerry went on to score 34 goals in a sensational first season at Stamford Bridge which included four in a Milk Cup match against Gillingham, a stunning hat-trick as promotion was clinched with a five-goal demolition of Leeds and the final day goal at Grimsby which won the title for The Blues. Almost a decade after he left the club, Chelsea had finally found a worthy successor to Peter Osgood in the number nine shirt. (Kelvin Barker)

 As Kerry Dixon prepared for his first season of top flight football he would have been aware of the speculation regarding his ability to perform at the highest level. It took him precisely 39 minutes to give his answer to the cynics, crashing a spectacular volley past Pat Jennings in the Arsenal goal to earn Chelsea an opening day point at Highbury. After scoring that goal he didn't find the net again for a month but once he did, there was simply no stopping him. A run of 19 goals in 15 league and Milk Cup games included hat-tricks against both Coventry and Manchester City but perhaps the most significant of Kerry's performances appeared to be his demolition of England's best centre-half Terry Butcher when Ipswich travelled to Stamford Bridge for a league match. Dixon's two-goal, match-winning performance looked to have assured him of a place in the England squad for the forthcoming World Cup qualifier in Turkey but he was surprisingly overlooked in favour of Aston Villa's veteran striker Peter Withe, who subsequently failed to register in an 8-0 victory.

Undeterred, Kerry's impressive strike-rate continued with crucial goals at Tottenham and in Chelsea's home win over European champions Liverpool. However, it was while he was in the process of tormenting Liverpool's usually unflappable centre-halves Alan Hansen and Mark Lawrenson that he picked up an injury which slowed his progress. Once his fitness returned he was quickly back in the groove, finding the net four times in an FA Cup tie at Wigan before eventually finishing the season with a total of 36 goals in all competitions. At the end of his second season with the club, Kerry Dixon had scored 70 goals in just 101 games. His exploits finally earned him a spot in the England squad that travelled to Mexico that summer for a tournament designed to help the players acclimatise for the following year's World Cup finals. Kerry was given a start against West Germany and responded by creating a goal for Bryan Robson before scoring two of his own as England beat the Germans for the first time in over a decade. (Kelvin Barker)

 With the Mexico World Cup now firmly in his sights, Dixon carried over his fine form from the previous term into the 1985-86 season. Continuing his love affair with the Milk Cup, he scored the goals which took Chelsea within sight of a place at Wembley for the second consecutive season and a run of spectacular league goals such as the two classy headers he scored at home to Everton and Tottenham, saw The Blues heavily involved in the race for the title. Kerry had already scored 22 goals by the time Liverpool visited Chelsea for an FA Cup tie at the end of January but a stomach muscle injury picked up in the opening minutes of that game had a major impact on the rest of his campaign. In his absence Chelsea suffered badly, losing the Liverpool match before being beaten in a Milk Cup quarter-final three days later. Kerry made a recovery of sorts and with The Blues continuing to struggle without him he was rushed back into action. Clearly unfit however, he scored just twice in his last fifteen games that season, both goals coming in a 2-1 win at Old Trafford.

The goals against Manchester United sealed his place in the World Cup squad but the effective Beardsley/Lineker partnership restricted Dixon to just a six minute cameo performance against Poland. Fully recovered in time for the start of the new season, Kerry returned to a club who were about to be thrown into turmoil, the hard work of the previous three seasons swiftly coming undone as a procession of senior players requested transfers after falling out with the management team. With Chelsea floundering around the relegation zone, Kerry's form suffered and eventually he was dropped. He soon became the latest player to ask for a move but was eventually returned to the team and a somewhat tenuous peace was restored. However, intense media speculation about his future prevailed over a period of some months and it seemed in January 1988 that he would be moving to either Arsenal or West Ham. In the event, the deals fell through at the eleventh hour and when Bobby Campbell replaced John Hollins in the hot seat he persuaded Kerry to pledge his long-term future to the club. The arrival of the new manager could not stop Chelsea's slide into the Second Division however, The Blues remarkably winning just one of their last twenty-six league fixtures of the campaign. (Kelvin Barker)

 The inevitable consequence of two consecutive poor seasons for the club was that Chelsea returned to Division Two in 1988. However, it was a revitalised Kerry Dixon who scored the goals which immediately led The Blues back to the top flight, his four-goal demolition of Barnsley during the run-in to promotion being as spectacular as anything he had produced in the previous five years. His tally of 28 goals for the season was all the more notable considering he had missed the first month of the season through injury. Bringing back memories of 1984-85, Chelsea made another impressive return to the big time, Kerry's 25 goals helping The Blues to a highly creditable fifth placed finish in May 1989. His final day treble at Millwall (he also scored twice against the Lions at Stamford Bridge) even led to futile press speculation that he might be recalled to the England squad for that summer's World Cup. Dixon scored 15 goals the following season, including a brace in a remarkable 6-4 win at Derby County and further league doubles against Everton (drew 2-2) and Liverpool (won 4-2).

The following season Kerry scored just six goals including, in March 1992, his 193rd, and final, goal in a Chelsea shirt when he fired home a spectacular shot from the edge of the box to beat Norwich City. That summer he was sold for £575, 000 to Southampton, where he briefly resumed his partnership with his old pal David Speedie. However, football is, as they say, a funny old game and fate was to bring Kerry Dixon and Chelsea together one last time. On April 9th 1994 Chelsea met Luton Town at Wembley in the semi-final of the FA Cup and lining up at centre-forward for Luton that day was a certain Kerry Dixon. The Blues won 2-0 and as the players made their way off the pitch at the end of the game, the Chelsea supporters massed at the tunnel end broke off from their celebrations to pay a final tribute to one of the club's favourite sons, 40, 000 voices letting it be known that there really was 'only one Kerry Dixon'. It was a fitting tribute to a true Chelsea legend. (Kelvin Barker)