Neil Fitzsimon

Neil Fitzsimon is blessed or cursed with a memory that is almost beyond belief. His attention to detail is microscopic. His love and passion for Chelsea Football Club is an obsession that will never die. He is a published writer in the music business and also co-wrote the music and book for the musical, 'Jack Dagger' which won the Musical Futures Award and was showcased in theatres across London. He has also written for many Chelsea fanzines.

Neil's trilogy on Chelsea Football Club starts with 'Rhapsody in Blue' which is a social history of the late 1960s and early 1970s, centred around one boy's love for Chelsea Football Club alongside the culture of street football, with not a referee in sight - the games often descending into downright violence. This book documents the rights of passage of a boy who lived through that golden era.

The second in the trilogy is 'A Deeper Shade of Blue' which recounts how Chelsea Football Club went from being the cup kings of London to a struggling mid table Second Division side. It also tells of the fall, the rise, and then the fall of Eddie McCreadie's Blue and White Army; a golden opportunity that was spurned by the club's owners.

The final part of the trilogy is 'Rebirth of the Blues' which covers Chelsea FC's history between the years of 1977 and 1985. This was a period where the club narrowly avoided relegation in 1983 into the Third Division, only to be resurrected under the management of John Neal when the likes of Kerry Dixon, Pat Nevin and others galvanised the club on to new glories.