|
There can be no doubt that the plaudits earned by the managerial team of
Ruud Gullit and Graham Rix during their time at the Stamford Bridge
helm were well-earned, and the pair's decisions generally well-received
by the Blues faithful, but one player of theirs who never succeeded in
winning over the supporters was Mark Nicholls. Short and scrawny,
Nicholls bore the look of a schoolground player but was earmarked by the
Chelsea management as a striker with a tremendous future ahead of him,
having made his mark in the club's youth and reserve teams. His rise to
prominence continued when he was given his first-team bow at Leicester
in October 1996, although he was replaced at half-time with the Blues
trailing 1-0 before an explosive second-half performance saw them clinch
a 3-1 win, and a further seven appearances - five as a substitute -
followed late in the season as Gullit rested players ahead of crucial
cup matches.
The manager confidently threw Nicholls into his side early
in the following campaign, and the youngster was on the pitch for the
last twenty minutes of a 6-0 rout of Barnsley on the second weekend of
the season, but his performances - and, in truth, a propensity towards
arrogance and petulance - brought criticism from the supporters, who
felt his apparent self-satisfaction was not justified in light of his
performances. Nevertheless, nobody was complaining when he struck his
first goal for the Blues, the fifth of Chelsea's half-dozen in a 6-1
humiliation of Spurs at White Hart Lane. However, a weak,
out-of-his-depth performance in an FA Cup defeat by Manchester United
saw him return to the bench, and he was the victim of audible groans
when he took to the field as a second-half replacement for Danny
Granville as the Blues trailed Coventry in a league match six days
later.
To Nicholls' credit, and to the amazement of the supporters, the
young striker turned the game on its head with two outstanding strikes
which were added to by a late Robbie Di Matteo effort which sealed a 3-1
victory - but they would prove to be his last goals for the club.
Gianluca Vialli replaced Gullit within weeks of the Coventry clash, and
the Italian displayed far less confidence in Nicholls' abilities. Mark's
nine appearances throughout 1998/99 all came from the substitute's
bench, the majority as a late replacement to use up precious seconds in
games where the Blues were holding out for victory, and the fact that he
was not selected despite Chelsea suffering a post-Christmas injury
crisis demonstrated Vialli's lack of faith. Loan spells with Reading,
Grimsby and Colchester followed before he eventually joined Torquay
United in the summer of 2001 on a free-transfer. (Kelvin Barker)
|