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At Harlington there wasn't enough pressure in the pipes to water the main

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At Harlington there wasn't enough pressure in the pipes to water the main pitch - a rock-hard, pitted surface that was a constant source of injuries. While, in the changing rooms, the showers were so unpredictable that you had to drain off the hot water first to prevent yourself getting a serious scalding. I played for Chelsea for six years before joining Blackburn Rovers in 1993, and when I returned to Stamford Bridge in 1997 I was excited about the potential of the club, the players and the manager. Unfortunately, what would hold us back was that little had changed at Harlington, our miserable training headquarters down by Heathrow airport. It was the kind of training ground that could change a sunny mood into a dark one as soon as you drove through the gates. The pitches were dreadful, the changing facilities poor and, worst of all, the grounds didn't even belong to the club.

We shared it with a London university and because it wasn't private land, anyone could wander in. I had just come from Blackburn, where the club had invested in their luxurious new Brockhall training ground. But to understand just how incredible that story is you have to know how bad it was at times before Roman Abramovich took over. The strange characters who became part of the club, the disputes over contracts and the awful, sub-standard training ground. In fact, a lot of it came back to that wretched training ground Chelsea had been riddled with contradictions In Ken Bates.

we had a chairman with whom we had great times - including FA Cup and European success - and bad times as well. As a club, Chelsea was synonymous with style, and yet they scarcely embraced their history. They signed some of the most famous names in Europe but made them train in facilities that would have shamed a semi-professional side. When you went into the dingy old changing rooms at Stamford Bridge you felt like there should be a surgical hand-scrub offered on the way out.

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