In the space of five short months in 1997, Chelsea signed three left-backs, each more expensive than the previous.

First to join was Danny Granville from Cambridge United in March, for a total of £300,000. Then came Celestine Babayaro, an exciting young Nigerian worth £2.25 million, a club record fee for a teenager at the time. Finally, in August, Graeme Le Saux returned ‘home’ after four years at Blackburn. The transfer fee of £5 million made him the most expensive defender in the country.

Injuries proved problematic for all three in 1997/98, but they did give the lesser-known Granville chances to play. He started our first European game of the season, a 2-0 home win over Slovan Bratislava (pictured top), and our last, the hard-fought success against Stuttgart in Stockholm. For that he will always have a place in the Chelsea history books.

Granville also netted his one and only goal against Slovan. It was the other full-back, Paul Hughes, who set him up having earlier started the move for Roberto Di Matteo’s opener in a game in which we had 29 attempts.

Hughes had come through our Academy and made a goalscoring debut against Derby the season before. A technically proficient and tactically solid player, he was best known as a midfielder. However, injury problems at right-back meant he enjoyed a four-game run there, starting with the Slovan game.

His pass to Granville for our second goal was crisp and well-timed. The left-back found himself in the heart of the penalty area, and after controlling the ball he cutely lifted it over a retreating defender before volleying it into the Matthew Harding Stand net.

Fast-forward a fortnight and all three left-backs featured in Slovakia for the second leg, including Babayaro, who made his Chelsea debut off the bench at half-time having recovered from a pre-season injury. He and Le Saux were involved in the build-up to our second goal in what turned out to be another routine 2-0 victory, before the England international was replaced by Granville.

In all, Granville played 21 times for Chelsea. He made only one more appearance in the Cup Winners’ Cup – away to Tromso – before lining up for the showpiece in Sweden some seven months later.

Hughes managed just a handful more games for us before moving on in the summer. Le Saux and Babayaro were injured for the final but could join in the celebrations and collect winners’ medals; a few months later, they both played the full 90 minutes as we beat Real Madrid in the Super Cup.

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