Chelsea FanCast #913 – Gary Chivers

Having joined Chelsea as a youth player, Gary Chivers made his debut as an 18 year old against Middlesbrough in April 1979. By a strange quirk of fate Gary’s last match for the club was also against Middlesbrough a mere four years later, with the club escaping a drop in to Division Three by the skin of their teeth.

In between, Gary enjoyed or more accurately endured some of the leanest, up and down eras of Chelsea Football Club. His career was spent entirely in Division Two and among the highs of beating Newcastle 6-0 where Gary scored one of the ‘Goals of the Season’; the League Cup win against a Southampton side with Kevin Keegan and the famous FA Cup win knocking out European Champions Liverpool were the lows of 6-0 away to Rotherham and a spell where Chelsea scored just eight goals in 22 matches.

Not rated by John Neal, Gary moved to Swansea in 1983, arguably too early as he was a stylish, ball-playing central-defender and well loved by the fans.

In our interview with Gary it is clear the love was mutual as he bleeds blue and loves the club to this day. In an engaging interview, Gary, often hilariously talks about players such as Ron Harris, Ray Wilkins, Mike Fillery, Duncan McKenzie and Johan Cruyff and the managers he played for such as Danny Blanchflower and Geoff Hurst as well as some of the matches he played in.