- This is part of a series – see here for the other entries
The 1993-94 season had a sense of freshness to it from a Chelsea point of view.
While the previous campaign had seen them revert back to white socks, that had just been a hosiery change to the existing strip.
The new kit was the first to have the distinctive Chelsea look in eight years – though they were to end up wearing four different sock colours during the season.
There was also a notable change in the dugout as Glenn Hoddle, fresh from guiding Swindon Town to the Premier League, was appointed as player-manager, succeeding David Webb.
Hoddle, who had reinvented himself as a sweeper, generally wore the number 4 shirt for the Robins and, when Chelsea took part in the Makita Tournament at the beginning of August 1993, that’s the number he had on his back.
Given that Andy Townsend – now Aston Villa’s number 14 – used to wear 4 for Chelsea, it seemed a logical fit for the new boss but instead, when the time came to submit the list of squad numbers, he gave himself number 20 and David Lee was given the number 4. Lee had worn 6 in pre-season, while John Spencer, who had worn 8 in every game he started in his debut campaign for the club, was 7.
There were a few other oddities in the numbers for 1993-94. For instance, Darren Barnard had worn 7 on the left of midfield in the last two games of 1992-93 and had also appeared in 11 but he was allocated 2 – the number usually worn by the player marking a left winger.
Thankfully, Gareth Hall, who came into the side at left-back wearing 10 at the tail-end of the previous season, was given number 14 with 10 going to the new marquee signing, Gavin Peacock.
1992-93 final game
1992-93 final game, 1993-94 squad numbers
1993-94 opening game
Chelsea were one of the more active teams in terms of re-assigning numbers in the seasons that followed – this is something that will be explored in more detail in a future article.
The squad in full was:
Last team line up has Fraser Digby in goal!
Thanks Nik, fixed now!