Talk:Ken Bates

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Quotes

Can anyone add some of Ken's quotes he has always had lots to say about everything --Vivbaker 09:12, 30 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Biography assessment rating comment

The article may be improved by following the WPBiogaphy 11 easy steps to producing at least a B article. --KenWalker | Talk 20:45, 1 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Kevin Blackwell

I thought Blackwell was sacked beacuse he revealed that "Leeds will be debt free in a year". An obvious pointer to Bates' plan of Leeds' financial restructure. Bates sacked him after the quote and told Blackwell to "Get in your car and on the motorway and turn your mobile phone off". Does anyone have the official quotes?

Threat of third division

The article says Chelsea were under threat of relegation to Division 3 when Ken bought Chelsea on April 3rd 1982. On that date Chelsea were in 13th place (of 22). They had 42 points and were 6 points clear of the 14th place team. The relegation zone teams had 28, 30 and 31 points. Chelsea's season record at that point was Played 31, Won 12, Drawn 6, Lost 13. The three teams that were relegated the previous season had 23, 30 and 36 points. Chelsea fans were still hoping for a late season surge taking them up into the promotion zone. As the final league standings show from this season the three teams that took the drop finished on 39, 44 and 44 points. Chelsea drew the game against Oldham on April 3rd and beat Cambridge the weekend after giving them 46 points with 9 games to go, ten points ahead of the final relegation positions of the previous season and 2 points ahead of the high relegation zone of this actual season. To be under threat of relegation there would have had to have been a feeling that Chelsea could have lost their final 11 games. Six of these were home games and they had only lost 3 home games all season prior to that point. Granted they had just lost 7 games out of 8 when Ken Bates took over. They had slumped from Played 23, Won 11, Drawn 3, Lost 6 to the above noted stats. However central defender Micky Droy had been out injured and only played in one of those 8. He was set to return. As a Chelsea fan who went to every game that season I can assure Wikipedia readers that there was no threat of relegation. It was not even in anyone's worst case scenario.

If someone has written the "threat of Division 3 football" claim from memory they may be thinking about the following season. A year after Ken Bates took over Chelsea were faced with a very real threat of relegation. Chelsea fans were calling for Ken Bates's head and they were very upset at the way the club was being run. A Clive Walker goal at Bolton with two games to go is credited as saving Chelsea from the drop to the Third Division. The article seems to say Chelsea were under threat of relegation to Division 3 and Ken Bates saved them. The feeling in the spring of 1983 (a year after he came in) was that Ken Bates had caused the threat of the drop to the third division and there were few, if any, Chelsea fans who had any gratitude for Bates for buying the club. He bought the club in April 1982 and Chelsea slumped to their worst ever (to date) league position in the 1982-1983 season after a comfortable 12th in 1981-1982.

With the benefit of hindsight we now know that a year after narrowly avoiding relegation Chelsea were promoted to Division One in the spring of 84 and went on to great things. Many Chelsea fans now regard Ken as instrumental in the Chelsea renaissance. However his effect was not immediate and as the above shows it is wrong to say that there was a threat of relegation in 1982-1983 season. One must remember that a year after Ken came in many Chelsea fans were livid with the man as the club were in the worst spot in its history.

I removed the text about the threat of relegation as it is not a correct portrayal of the way things were at the time. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.82.205.85 (talk) 11:46, 1 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

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