Ken Bates was force of nature dubbed ‘Blaster’ who banned reporters left & right but without him Chelsea wouldn’t exist

YOU weren’t a proper football journalist unless you’d been banned at some point by Ken Bates. The “Blaster” was a force of nature, full of grudges and bluster. But his love for Chelsea was unquestioned. And without Bates, there may well have been NO Chelsea. And certainly no Roman Abramovich glory era at Stamford Bridge. Indeed, there might not have even been a Stamford Bridge – and it is the existence of the ground and the team that plays there that is Ken Bates’ greatest legacy. Bates, who has died in Monaco at the age of 94, was born in Ealing and grew up as a QPR fan. READ MORE IN FOOTBALL He made his fortune in the haulage industry and also in the concrete business, spending time in both the British Virgin Islands and Rhodesia – now Zimbabwe. But it was football that introduced him to the national consciousness. His first spells in the game were in Lancashire, five years as chairman of Oldham before a role at Wigan. In 1982, though, with Chelsea facing bankruptcy as they struggled to cope with the debts after the building of the East Stand in the mid 70s. In a bid to stave off financial ruin, chairman Brian Mears, whose family had run the club since its inception in 1905, sold shares in Stamford Bridge to a property developer, Marler Estates. The club itself remained in peril and Bates paid just £1 to buy it wholesale and take on the debts. On the pitch, things slowly turned round. Off it, the fight was brutal as Bates took on Marler, who wanted to turn the site into a housing development. Bates did everything in his power to stymy the plans but it was only Marler’s financial collapse after a stock market crash in 1992 that enabled him to buy back the freehold. His decision, then, to create the Chelsea Pitch Owners, with fans invited to buy shares and a “piece” of the pitch on a 199-year lease, was one of the most important in the club’s history. It means no future owners could move the club, or play under the name of Chelsea, without the consent of the CPO. Even Abramovich wasn’t able to overturn that. But Bates was a polarising figure. His determination to end Chelsea’s reputation as a hooligan hotbed saw him putting up an electric fence around the ground – although it was never switched on as local council chiefs refused to sanction the plan. He also became locked in a nasty dispute with fellow director and fan Matthew Harding, seeming to revel in the death of his rival in a helicopter crash in 1996. But on the pitch, allied with his right hand man Colin Hutchinson, Bates changed the profile of the club. He brought in Glenn Hoddle – a Spurs legend – as manager and when he took over as England boss Bates appointed Ruud Gullit and began a huge recruitment drive. In came the likes of Marcel Desailly, Gianluca Vialli and Gianfranco Zola as Bates aimed to make Chelsea one of the Premier League’s big beasts. Part of that was his bitter personal spat with then-Arsenal vice chairman David Dein, with Bates desperate to get one over and make his Blues London’s premier club. The FA Cup win over Middlesbrough in 1997 kickstarted the modern Chelsea as a trophy-gathering machine, although Gullit was bulleted after a row and replaced by Vialli. Chelsea won the League Cup and the Cup Winners’ Cup the following season and the FA Cup in the last Final at the old Wembley in 2000, when Roberto Di Matteo scored the only goal against Aston Villa. Bates had been part of the decision to knock down and rebuild the home of English football in his role on the FA board, including a long-running fight over the land outside the stadium. Indeed, at one point he suggested “shooting” then-Sports Minister Kate Hoey. All through, there were fights and digs – at rival clubs, fans – including any Chelsea supporters who criticised him – and, of course, the media. Pretty much anyone who wrote about Chelsea and Bates ended up being banned at some point, often long after the reason was forgotten by both parties. His programme notes became a must-read series of gripes and groans, with naming and shaming par for the course, And he would unban you out of nothing, too. But that spending spree – the property empire on the Stamford Bridge site included the infamous “Bates Hotel” – exacted a toll. Hutchinson went into the Blues dressing room ahead of the final game of the 2001-02 season to tell the players that, unless they beat Liverpool to secure Champions League football, they might ALL be sold to meet debts soaring towards £80m. It worked but just a few weeks later, out of nowhere, Bates had sold to a little-known Russian oligarch, bagging £140m as Abramovich took over the club. His price included retaining the title of chairman – until it acrimoniously ended in 2004 – and a suite in the hotel behind the Shed. Despite moving full-time to Monaco, Bates could not keep away from football for long, buying Leeds in January 2005 and soon emptying his arsenal at his former club when they attempted to sign three players including Danny Rose from Elland Road on the cheap. He spent eight seasons in Yorkshire, going through managers in the quest for success, before another fall-out saw him depart and return to Monaco in 2013. With his death, an era of English football ownership is no more. Love him or hate him, you could never ignore the Blaster. And, I guess, that will be the thing he enjoyed most.