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One of football's great nomads, Chelsea became 29 year-old Mickey
Thomas' sixth club when he signed from Stoke City for £75, 000 in
January 1984. With Chelsea's promotion push beginning to wilt, John Neal
brought in the left-sided midfielder to add much needed experience to
his young team and it proved to be an inspired move as The Blues
remained unbeaten for the rest of the season. The little Welshman made a
swift impact on the Chelsea supporters when he scored twice on his home
debut as The Blues beat Sheffield Wednesday 3-2 to displace the
Yorkshiremen at the top of Division Two.
Although a player of natural
flair, Mickey never gave less than 100% and could often be seen flying
into tackles or chasing lost causes. He could also be relied upon to
produce the goods when the stakes were high, hence it was no surprise
that it was Mickey who opened the scoring after just five minutes to
calm the nerves on the day that Chelsea clinched promotion with a 5-0
victory over Leeds. Suffering from injury as the new season began, the
former Manchester United player recovered just in time to make an
emotional return to Old Trafford and score Chelsea's equaliser in a 1-1
draw. Injured again soon after, Thomas returned to the side just before
Christmas and immediately made up for lost time with a winning goal
against Nottingham Forest on New Year's Day before continuing his one
man assault on Sheffield Wednesday as the two sides played out a trilogy
of Milk Cup quarter-final matches,
Mickey producing outstanding
displays in each of the games and scoring the winning goal in the last
minute of the third match. Chelsea finished sixth that year with Thomas
scoring seven goals but a broken jaw suffered prior to the start of the
following season meant that he would be unavailable for the beginning of
the new campaign. During his enforced absence, new manager John
Hollins, who unlike his predecessor was unhappy with the arrangement
whereby Thomas was allowed to commute from Wales on a daily basis, moved
to sign Crystal Palace's Jerry Murphy as a replacement. It was
therefore inevitable that he would soon be on his way and in September
1985 the announcement was made, much to the dismay of Chelsea fans
everywhere, that Mickey had been sold to West Bromwich Albion for
£100,000. (Kelvin Barker)
1984–1985 Chelsea 44 (9)
1985–1986 West Bromwich Albion 20 (0)
1986 Derby County (loan) 9 (0)
1986–1988 Wichita Wings ? (?)
1988–1989 Shrewsbury Town 40 (1)
1989–1990 Leeds United 3 (0)
1990–1991 Stoke City 46 (7)
1991–1993 Wrexham 34 (2)
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