Ted Drake

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Ted Drake
0Full Name	Edward Joseph Drake
0Date of Birth	16 August 1912
0Place of Birth	Southampton
0Chelsea career	1952-61
0Win percentage	36%
0Honours	First Division: '55 Charity Shield: '55
0Other clubs	Hendon Reading

Edward Joseph 'Ted' Drake (16 August 1912 – 30 May 1995) was manager of Chelsea from 1952 to 1961. He led the club to their first league championship, in the 1954-55 season.

Contents 1 Before Chelsea 2 Chelsea 3 After Chelsea 4 Statistics 5 Honours 6 Images

Before Chelsea

In his playing days, Drake was a prolific centre-forward for Southampton and Arsenal, once scoring seven goals in a single game against Aston Villa on 14 December 1935, an English top-flight record which still stands. With Arsenal, Drake won two league titles and an FA Cup. He was capped five times for the England national team, and scored six goals.

Drake served in the RAF during World War II, and retired from playing shortly after the war ended, owing to a back injury. In 1947, he was appointed manager of Reading, leading them to runners-up place in the Southern Third Division in 1952. A few months later, he was appointed manager of Chelsea.

Chelsea

Drake immediately introduced a series of changes at Chelsea, aimed at modernising the club and ending its dated association with the music halls. He removed the Chelsea pensioner crest from the matchday programme and insisted the club adopt a new badge, which led to the adoption of the classic "Lion Rampant Reguardant" crest. This in turn saw the Pensioners nickname gradually replaced by the Blues. He also demanded more vocal and partisan support for the team at Stamford Bridge:

"Too many people come to Stamford Bridge to see a football match instead of cheering Chelsea. For years now the players must have been thoroughly sick of all the music-hall publicity. Let's have people eating, sleeping and drinking Chelsea."

On the pitch, the start of Drake's reign was inauspicious; Chelsea finished 19th in the First Division - one point from relegation - in the 1952-53 season. The following season saw some improvement, with the team finishing 8th and setting a (then) club record of 14 games unbeaten. A year later Drake led Chelsea to their first major trophy, the league championship.

Though the team were only 12th in November, they lost just four more games that season and secured the championship thanks to a 3-0 victory over Sheffield Wednesday on 23 April 1955. Of particular importance were a run of seven wins in ten matches during the title run-in, and two wins over eventual runners-up Wolves (a last gasp 4-3 win at Molineux and a 1-0 win at Stamford Bridge in April, secured with a Peter Sillett penalty).

Drake's Chelsea failed to build on the title success, and finished 16th in the 1955-56 season. The championship winning side was gradually broken up, replaced by youngsters emerging from the club's youth set-up, among them Jimmy Greaves, Peter Brabrook and Ron Tindall. The club was marooned in mid-table for the rest of the 1950s, a barren spell mainly lit up by Greaves' prolific goalscoring. The nadir of Drake's tenure came with a 2-1 home defeat to Fourth Division Crewe Alexandra in the FA Cup in January 1961. Drake was sacked after a poor start to the 1961-62 season and replaced by player-coach Tommy Docherty.

After Chelsea

After leaving Chelsea, Drake held a variety of posts at neighbouring Fulham, including reserve team manager, director and, eventually, life president. He died on 30 May 1995.

Statistics

	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Win %
League	389	139	94	156	701	733	-32	36%
FA Cup	28	10	9	9	43	37	+6	36%
Lg Cup	4	3	0	1	18	4	+14	75%
Europe	4	3	0	1	9	6	+3	75%
Total	425	155	103	167	771	780	-9	36%

Honours

• First Division: 1954-55
• Charity Shield: 1955

Images

Drake (left) with Roy Bentley and Stan Wicks.

Managers

Robertson (1905–06) • Lewis (1906–07) • Calderhead (1907–33) • Knighton (1933–39) • Birrell (1939–52) Drake (1952–61) • Docherty (1961–67) • Sexton (1967–74) • Suart (1974–75) • McCreadie (1975–77) • Shellito (1977–78) Blanchflower (1978–79) • Hurst (1979–81) • Neal (1981–85) • Hollins (1985–88) • Campbell (1988–91) Porterfield (1991–93) • Webb (1993) • Hoddle (1993–96) • Gullit (1996–98) • Vialli (1998–00) • Ranieri (2000–04) Mourinho (2004–07) • Grant (2007–08) • Scolari (2008–09) • Hiddink (2009) • Ancelotti (2009–11) Villas-Boas (2011–12) • Di Matteo (2012) • Benítez (2012–13) • Mourinho (2013–15) • Hiddink (2015–16) Conte (2016–)