EXCL: Thank you for putting me in Chelsea kit launch, Concerns over lack of signings, Rayan Cherki is a huge player, My message to Dele Alli, and more...

The Frank Leboeuf Chelsea FC column!

Chelsea had their big new kit launch this week with a 90s theme and I love the new shirts. I love it because it hasn’t got any sponsor on and you really see the badge of Chelsea.

It’s nice that the club decided to go back to the basics because it’s where a great era started. But don’t forget the 70s and the Peter Osgood era and everything that came before. But let’s say that the new era started in 95/96 with Ruud Gullit coming in to Chelsea, and then the likes of Gianluca Vialli, Gianfranco Zola, Roberto Di Matteo, myself, Dan Petrescu, Mark Hughes all joining the club and winning the FA Cup in 1997 really started the successful era of the 90s.

You always wonder if the young players at the club currently know you or not. If they didn’t before then now they do when you see the shirt of Viall and next to that the shirt of Leboeuf! I don’t know who decided to use my shirt in the launch, but to the person who decided, I want to thank them very much because its a fantastic tribute and a fantastic gesture from the club. I was really moved to see my shirt on the special launch and also next to Gianluca.

I lent some stuff to the Chelsea museum, they have my World Cup final shirt and also the two shirts from Chelsea when we won the FA Cup in 2000 and the Cup Winners Cup in 1998, as well as all of my silverware that I left and also my boots from the 98’ World Cup final. Everything is in there at the museum. So I know that I am not forgotten, I know the Chelsea fans know me and I receive many good messages from them. Every time I say something about Chelsea, whether it’s going to be good or not!

You always wonder whether people like Raheem Sterling, Mykhailo Mudryk, Ben Chilwell etc know you. But when they see that picture then they must know who ‘that guy’ was!!

It’s always nice because we all have an ego and we all want to be recognised by the new generation, and especially at Chelsea, because what we did in the 90s, deciding to join Chelsea at that time, which wasn’t the club it was now, was a huge bet and a risk. I had five clubs that wanted me that summer, and I went to the club that was more unknown than the others. It was a big challenge alongside fantastic people, but I didn’t know them all and I didn’t know whether it would work or not. I came because I felt something in my core and I can’t even really now say why, but it was a feeling that I had to go to Chelsea, and it completely changed my life. I never wanted to sign for any other English club after that and it’s been Chelsea forever.