It is a story we will be retelling over the coming months through our archive of first-hand interviews. The words come from the very people who lived that momentous campaign: the players on the pitch, the coaches in the dugout, and the supporters in the stand.

Our five long reads will focus on different subjects: the summer of ’96; the death of Matthew Harding; the arrival of Gianfranco Zola; the FA Cup comeback against Liverpool; and the 1997 FA Cup final, which provided a fitting finale.

We start here in the weeks leading up to the new season, which followed hot on the heels of Euro ’96, held in England. It was a tournament that proved significant for this country on and off the pitch, and it was noteworthy for Chelsea, too.

Newly appointed player-manager Ruud Gullit was a pundit for the BBC throughout the tournament, and at its conclusion, the Blues' outgoing boss, Glenn Hoddle, was to take charge of the Three Lions.

Football was enjoying its finest hour in England for many decades, and we start by hearing from the DJ Trevor Nelson, a Chelsea fanatic, on what the mood was like during that balmy summer month.

Nelson: I think the summer of '96 was one of the best summers in living memory, just because the football took over. It was the most patriotic I've ever been. I was actually imagining winning the thing!

I think a lot of people started thinking, “We're going to win this”. I was thinking about Trafalgar Square, “Would I, wouldn't I,” you know, it was a bit like that. There was a genuine feeling that was the nearest we got to '66 in terms of the country. We'd heard all about it, but no one had ever witnessed it.

There was cause for hope off the pitch, too, as Chelsea's club historian Rick Glanvill explains.

Glanvill: It was a very inclusive tournament. It was all about getting young people in there, about appealing to women. It was a really interesting way that they pitched it, really. I think what they were trying to do was to make a break from the past.

The image of English football in the eighties was from Heysel, for example, of hooliganism and run-down stadia. On the back of the Taylor report, where stadiums were being improved, and Euro '96, there was a real sense of renewal in English football.

The legendary commentator Martin Tyler recalls the sense of anticipation ahead of the new Premier League season starting.

Tyler: It wasn't that long since Blackburn Rovers had been champions. Manchester United were embarking in the early part of their domination of the Premier League in the nineties and the noughties, and the thought of Chelsea winning the league title was crazy.

I was alive when they won it in 1955. Such a long time. People will have no recollection of it, really. “Oh, don't forget they won the league in 1955."

Glanvill: There was a sense that football was returning to something like it probably had been in the 1930s to the 1950s and '60s, where it was part of the mainstream culture. At the forefront of this renovation, if you like, was Chelsea.

Now, Chelsea was a side which finished 11th, 14th, 11th in seasons up to this point. There had been a revolution taking place under Glenn Hoddle since 1993. The whole explosion of money in the Premier League hadn't quite happened then - that's important to remember.

But the foreign influence was coming, and in Chelsea's case, it arrived with Ruud Gullit.

Nelson: I remember when Ruud Gullit signed for Chelsea. I remember coming to the Bridge, and Ruud Gullit did an Eddie Newton-style stepover. Ruud did it in his sleep. I looked at my mate and said, “We've got Ruud Gullit playing for us. It's amazing.”

He was so lazily brilliant. He barely looked like he breathed in or out. He just did things.

Gullit, arguably the most significant signing the club had ever made when he joined from Sampdoria in 1995, was clear in his motivations for moving to Stamford Bridge.

Gullit: Glenn Hoddle, I think I admired him as a player and also what he was trying to do with Chelsea. I had some information about where Chelsea was and how London was, and it was also, for me, an important turn in my life.

I wanted to have my life back. That meant that at the moment I was in Italy, everybody was on me, and it was hard to have an own life. And therefore, when I made that choice, I thought, “Okay, I go into something totally different.” I liked the English mentality, almost similar with the Dutch, so, "let's see what happens".

The first year – I felt like a boy again. You must realise that when I played in Italy, in Milan, that was hard work. That was pressure every game, and it was like if you had a draw, then hell broke loose. Everybody was screaming and shouting and meetings and everything. We were under pressure all the time.

And I remember one of the first games at Chelsea that I think we lost or we drew, and then the coach said, “Okay, bad luck. Next time, better.” And I was like, “Bad luck?” That was a relief. It was like there was no pressure, and therefore I could, I think, enjoy the game even more.

The English game suited me also, but also the appreciation around it, and that everything what you'd done and what you wanted to do was good in the eyes of the fans and also of your own players. So it was like playing on a schoolyard.

And I remember that Gavin Peacock came to me in a game. He said, "Look, Ruud, how is it possible? You are always unmarked. How do you do that?" I explained it was just the fact that I understood the game.

It's also your experience of the game, that you know where it's crowded. You have to be somewhere else. You have to think two steps ahead, and therefore, if you go in that position, the ball will come automatically there. It was nice also to explain these things to the players.

'The publicly-elected manager'

Gullit’s footballing acumen was one of the reasons why he emerged as a frontrunner to replace Glenn Hoddle when it was announced the graceful former midfielder would be taking charge of England once Euro '96 was over.

Hoddle had arrived at Chelsea as player-manager in the summer of 1993, as football was entering an era of new possibilities following the birth of the Premier League and the expansion of European club competitions.

He was a football philosopher and saw great potential in Chelsea, quickly implementing a root-and-branch revolution that radically reshaped many different aspects of the football club, as well as the mindset of the supporters. He would be a tough act to follow.

When considering his replacement, it later emerged the board initially turned to Sampdoria's Sven-Goran Eriksson, with a view to Gullit working as a player-coach under him to help build on the foundations Hoddle had laid.

Press speculation at the time put George Graham in the frame for the job, but the fans had other ideas. They wanted one man, and one man only.

Glanvill: I always like to say he was the first publicly-elected manager because at the last match of the season, when it was clear Glenn Hoddle was going and the chairman had ideas about who he wanted to take over at the club, there'd been a rumour that Ruud Gullit, who was a player at the time, might want to be the player-manager.

Gullit: It was strange because I didn't know what it is to be a manager or to be a coach. I didn't know. And I was like, “You want something that I don't know what it's all about.” It was just, you know, enjoying the game. And I felt pressure also, from the players and from the board.

I was thinking about it. I was going home. I was going to a store. I said, “What do I have to do?” I'd never done it. So I thought about it, and I had no real quality time to think about it because there was this pressure on me. And then when people persuaded me to do it, I said, “Okay, I will do it. I will do it. I'll do whatever comes into me to do.”

Tyler: There was an opportunity for Chelsea to step a bit more into the limelight. Glenn obviously was a high-profile manager, but they were a mid-table team, and Ruud Gullit had been associated with success all his life, so he wasn't coming to be in charge of a mid-table team. That was the impression at the time.

Gullit the player wasn't about to retire, and so, to ensure he could continue to play at the highest level and focus on the overall direction of the team on the pitch, certain responsibilities that come with being a manager were delegated to others.

Ade Mafe, a 200-meter Olympic finalist in 1984 at the age of just 17, was recruited from a Kings Road health club to look after the player's fitness programme. Elsewhere, Colin Hutchinson, the much-respected managing director, took a more hands-on approach to the recruitment of players.

Hutchinson: It was a very small team, we didn't have millions of scouts. We probably had half a dozen. A lot of it was information gathering, having very good contacts with agents and clubs and things around Europe, and having the philosophy that decisions could be made quickly.

It was really down to me to go to [chairman] Ken Bates, and if he said, “Okay,” then we got on and did it. Some clubs would have committees where they were discussing deals for days, where we would say, "Yeah, we're going to do it," and go and do it.

Gullit: I knew what I needed to strengthen the team, especially in the spine, and that's what I did. And I tried to get all these players.

Glanvill: So Ruud Gullit came in on a wave of goodwill, and the extension of everything that had happened since 1995, really, when Gullit had come in, Mark Hughes had come in, and we'd started to refresh the squad, bring in real world-class players, continued.

Gianluca Vialli signed two days after he'd lifted the European Cup as the captain of Juventus.

Hutchinson: it was an interesting one. Ruud wasn't sure, but in the end, he decided to give it a whirl. I remember I was on holiday in Cyprus because it was close season. He was with Juventus, and they were playing in the Champions League final in Rome.

So I left my family in Cyprus, boarded a flight, went to Rome. He got me tickets for the match, went to the match. They won 1-0. Then the next day, went from Rome to Turin and signed him.

The next addition to the squad was Frank Leboeuf, a muscular, tall French defender who read the game superbly and was confident in possession. He cost Chelsea £2.5 million.

Hutchinson: I went out to Strasbourg to do the deal, and then I went to a hotel, I think it was in Wigan or somewhere, to actually sign him.

Leboeuf: In fact, it was a very easy decision. I was in England for Euro '96, and I had some teams in Italy interested in me, like Lazio, and I had Betis interested in me.

When Ruud Gullit contacted me, I was in my room, and I said, “Okay.” I didn't even talk about the money and the contract. I said, “Okay, I want to come.” I never put one foot in London, but I was ready to come because, I don't know, it was something obvious.

I had this energy, this feeling, you know, that it would be great. And I wanted to learn English. My kids also, I wanted them to speak English. It was, for me, a big challenge and a beautiful opportunity to do something with that club.

And so I signed without visiting the facilities, without knowing anything but the names of the players and the fact that they wanted me.

Glanvill: One of the most interesting signings was Roberto Di Matteo, because he was an Italy international and he'd been wrenched away from Lazio. Lazio supporters protested and tried to block his car leaving. This was a man in his prime, and for Chelsea supporters, that was quite a significant moment. It wasn't someone who was in his 30s, who was coming for a payday. This was someone who thought, "Do you know what? I see prospects here. I see the chance of winning silverware."

Di Matteo: For me, it was just important that the club wanted me, that the manager wanted me, and I saw that there was an opportunity to be successful. That was very important for me as a professional, to win trophies, to win something. It was quite an easy decision for me.

It was very important that Ruud Gullit was the manager. Very important that the club moved very, very fast to sign me. And I didn't really know much about London or England. That was all new to me, but that was secondary. Important was the professional aspect of it. The chairman was very ambitious. The club was ambitious. The manager. So that was good enough for me.

Hutchinson: That was a very complicated transfer because it wasn’t the norm in those days for current Italian internationals to leave the country, and it went on for quite a long time.

I remember, to finalise the deal, I went to Rome, to the president’s apartment in the centre of Rome, and it took us about five hours to thrash out a deal. And even then, Roberto wanted to think more about it. He and I and his entourage, we came out of the building, and we got spat upon because everything is in the public domain in Italy. But eventually, he signed, and a very good signing.

Of the existing squad, no player had made more appearances for Chelsea than club stalwart Steve Clarke, who had arrived in 1987. He immediately felt the new additions’ impact.

Clarke: As a player, you always want to see good players coming in to give you competition. They were three good players, three big names, and to have those people come into the club was exciting.

Tyler: There's always a tinge of glamour around the place, but it was usually in the crowd rather than on the pitch. There were always film stars, West End actors, TV stars. Raquel Welch on one famous occasion! It always had that feel about it, but this was a real chance to glamorise it on the pitch. It didn't happen straight away, but it clearly was a statement of intent.

Glanvill: The transition that was taking place at Chelsea was this: older players who had the quality and adaptability to work under Ruud Gullit's new methodology, such as Dennis Wise, Steve Clarke, were still there.

A lot of the old guard, if you like, younger players, some of them had been around a bit too long. Some players who were maybe not quite of the standard that was required were let go. Some of the younger players who had proved that they could live with the best quality football, such as Eddie Newton, Frank Sinclair, they retained their places. It really was a revamp, a massive revamp from the team that had lost the FA Cup in 93/94.

A force to be taken seriously

The Premier League may be awash with players from all corners of the globe now, but in the mid-1990s, things were very different, with the three-foreigner rule stipulating that clubs could only name three players from outside the UK and Ireland in their matchday squad. That all changed in December 1995, though, and Chelsea were one of the first teams to take full advantage. As a result, the existing players needed to raise their levels.

Kevin Hitchcock, a long-serving goalkeeper whose Chelsea career was hampered by injury, quickly noticed a difference.

Hitchcock: Things changed. Diets changed. The way we trained was different. They’d be in the gym, stretching, warming up, and then everybody did it.

Homegrown, Hammersmith-born Eddie Newton had established himself in Chelsea’s midfield earlier in the ‘90s.

Newton: There was slowly a different ilk of player that was coming into the club, with more experience, played at a higher level, and therefore, everything within the club started to go and function towards a higher level. Chelsea were no longer just a team that could win on their day. Chelsea were now becoming a force to be taken seriously.

When we were growing up at the club, we were so used to not just English players, we had a lot of Irish, Scottish players. When we were growing up, they were foreign! For me, seeing foreign players was not a big thing.

The biggest thing for me was watching when Ruud Gullit came through the door, because he was my idol. When he came through the door, my jaw dropped. Vialli is iconic, Dan Petrescu, Ruud Gullit, Mark Hughes, this ilk of player was coming through the door, and now we knew that the club had a different kind of focus.

The players within the group that were British kind of accepted it quite well. I didn't really feel there was any cliques. Ruudy was very big on that straight away to make sure that didn't happen.

Among those playing a crucial part in helping the new signings settle were senior pros Clarke and captain Dennis Wise.

Wise: I think at first a lot of the Italians couldn't believe how relaxed it was. It was a lot more intense in Italy than it was over here. You got a little bit more leeway, and they enjoyed themselves, and it was important for them to enjoy it.

Clarke: We just helped them to understand the culture of the club, what the club was about, what we were trying to do, how you behaved in England. I think lots of just little details that probably and obviously made an impact on those players.

Di Matteo: We tried very hard from the beginning. We tried to learn the language. Because I speak German, it was a bit easier for me because many words are similar. But we tried very hard to learn the language. That was important so that we could just blend into the team and make it easy for everybody.

Vialli: When you try to learn a new language and you're like 12, 14, you're like a sponge, so you absorb and you learn much quicker. When you're 30, 32, then you're a little bit lazier, and you don't get things so quickly like when you're a child.

I didn't find it easy at all. London is a very special place where you can certainly survive even though you don't speak a word of English because if you're Italian, there are enough Italians out there to keep you busy and help you out in case you need anything.

There were so many foreigners at the club that I could speak Spanish and Italian and really have enough conversations even without knowing the language, but then I think I put a lot of effort in it because I wanted to be able to communicate because there's so much I can tell.

Wise: I remember I used to take Luca to the pictures every Friday and go for a pizza. It was just making sure that people were comfortable. They come to a different environment, they've come over from overseas, and they need to relax, and they need to enjoy themselves.

Di Matteo: The English boys, the British boys, they tried to make it easier for us, and they helped us out a lot, and we were like a big family. That helped on the pitch as well to get some results.

Leboeuf: I came to play to have an English feeling. Even if we had a European kind of football way, we were led by Dennis Wise. We were following Dennis and Steve Clarke and Mark Hughes because we wanted to learn English. We wanted to appreciate the time in England and not being a team who plays like an Italian side in England.

Newton: Real success was behind the scenes that we were able to amalgamate and not get drawn up into little groups. Then you could see what happened on the pitch. It started to come together quicker than most clubs. I think a lot of clubs initially, in the beginning, struggled when they started bringing foreigners over.

I do believe it would have been that the British trying to hold fort and foreigners feeling that they're not accepted. So I think that would have been happening behind closed doors where it wasn't so much like that at our place.

Sexy football

While the players were settling off the pitch, Gullit himself had to adapt to a new role completely alien to him. In his column in the club's official newspaper of the time, Onside, he pinpointed two necessary attributes above all others.

‘To wear the colours of Chelsea must be an honour,’ Gullit wrote, adding that, ‘Everyone must be aware of the dedication needed to become a better player.’

Defender Frank Sinclair remembers what the new player-manager had to go through.

Sinclair: It was a difficult transformation for him because all of a sudden you go from being one of the boys to having to call the shots, upsetting players because you can't keep everybody happy being only able to select 11 players.

I felt he dealt with it quite well. Obviously, his experience in the game was unbelievable. World Player of the Year. He'd won the Champions League. He'd won the Euros and stuff like that. So his credentials were unbelievable.

He came in with his own ideas, and rightfully, he tagged it sexy football. We bought into it with a smile on our faces, but we understood what he wanted to do. He wanted to make the way we played a lot more attractive, and with the background he had, we trusted in his ideas.

It was excellent. He still played often enough that he had an input on the pitch as well, but realistically, you could see the transformation of him turning into a coach and wanting to get the side playing the way that he wanted us to play.

Gullit: When I was at the European Championships for a game, Czech Republic against Portugal, I said that Portugal play sexy football. And that term, that phrase followed me all these years after that.

Glanvill: You looked at Ruud Gullit, over six-foot tall, great dreadlocks, he looked the absolute business. You couldn't help but listen to him and feel inspired, and you could see that the players felt the same way about that.

Gullit's effervescence had been a trademark of his playing days, and it was a characteristic he wanted to maintain now he had the top gig.

Gullit: If you win and you play well and you do things together, it's the biggest joy you have. You can't do it on your own. You need your players around you. You need everybody around you. Not only the 11 players, but all the 20 players, 22, whatever. You need them all.

So I need you to have also fun with each other, good banter with each other, but be serious in the moment that it is. Look, we are all little kids. And of course it's work, but you work so much better if you also enjoy what you're doing.

And it is, come on. Who doesn't want to have your job outside playing football? Come on. What is not to enjoy about it?

There were some detractors who questioned Gullit’s personality and management style, however.

Gullit: That's how I am. I laughed about people that always thought I was arrogant. I was thinking, “What do you mean? You don't know me. I'm very relaxed. I'm very open.”

Maybe it's sometimes because I try to protect myself that I don't want to show myself that much, but I'm very, very relaxed. And the thing is, players need to know that it's about something. It's not here only to be relaxed and nice and laughing and everything. No. The most important thing is that you work when you work. As a coach, I tried to transmit that fact to the team.

And they felt relaxed. That's why I think they also got all these wins. It was slowly, slowly trying to build up something. And I know they were doing their best all the time.

Dan Petrescu, one of many players from that time who subsequently went into management themselves, benefited from Gullit's philosophy. A forward-thinking, right-sided player and Chelsea's first from overseas to reach 200 appearances for the club, the Romanian was given plenty of reign to join the attack.

Petrescu: It was a pleasure to go to training. I enjoyed everything. It is not a mistake they said we play sexy football because he liked to play football. He didn't like to defend. He just liked to play all the time. This is maybe also Dutch mentality of the coaches, to play nice football, and he brings something from these coaches and from his mentality. Just to enjoy it, go out, enjoy, and play football.

Elsewhere, Leboeuf was not only tasked with shoring up the centre of defence. He had been voted European Libero of the Year by Italian newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport in 1995. His assurance in possession and eye for a defence-splitting long pass would prove crucial for the way Gullit wanted his team to play, even if the risks Leboeuf took sometimes left Chelsea hearts in mouths.

Leboeuf: I didn't have an education as a defender. I was a midfield player, and even played up front. So I was pretty offensive. The start of the offensive attack is very important. You give the rhythm, and I really wanted to do something special. People didn’t like it, but I think it changed a little bit the game of Chelsea.

Further upfield, Gullit got to work on maximising the captain’s potential.

Gullit: Wisey played very good football. I had a big argument with him. He was playing in a way I didn't like. He was still playing the Wimbledon way, the Crazy Gang way. A couple of times I said to him I wanted him to play in a different way, and he didn’t do it.

He didn't speak with me for about three weeks. He didn't want to speak with me at all. Then we have a common friend who we played golf with. He said to Wisey: “Go to his house, call him, because he hasn't got anything against you." He thought I had something against him. He thought I wanted to put only foreigners in there and not him, but I didn’t. So he called me, and came to my house. We had a drink, and I explained it to him.

“Look, that Crazy Gang thing is over. You are one of the best players. You have to play with responsibility. You are captain. As a captain, you are an example for the rest. And I want you to play in a certain way that suits you very well: holding player, always keeping the ball, trying to make a link to the front man. And if you play well, I assure you will play also in the national team.”

'The start of a really good period'

Hoddle's influence earlier in the '90s is widely credited with kickstarting the modern Chelsea we know today, but Gullit did make some fundamental changes, none more so, arguably, than modifying the players' day-to-day routine.

They were to all eat together at the club's Harlington training ground between sessions, encouraged to talk football, and in turn develop a sense of autonomy about their game. Gullit didn't want to adopt a paternalistic approach, rather one centred on trust and self-management. It was one of the reasons he got rid of the club dietitian when he took over.

Gullit: I just wanted them to think about their own game but also about the team. I want to know what they're thinking. I don't want any robots. A robot doesn't help me. On the pitch, things change, so when it changes, I need players who take responsibility on the pitch.

Gullit's methodology paid off, particularly at Stamford Bridge, where the team lost only twice all season, and an away win at Old Trafford in the November proved the Blues could mix it with the best on their day. Alex Ferguson said of all the teams Manchester United faced that season, Chelsea had the ‘best imagination in the final third.’

Gullit: I have seen games that were unbelievable. Of course, Liverpool [in the FA Cup] was the best example of that, but I enjoyed watching them. That's why I withdrew myself more, to see what I needed to improve and what I needed to do.

Clarke: It was great to play in, and we played some great football, pass and move. Played with freedom. Played without fear. It was the start of a really good period for the club and for the team.

I still speak to a lot of supporters now who speak about that time, the end of Glenn's reign and the start of Ruud Gullit's reign as some of the best football that Chelsea have played in recent memory. To be associated with that team and remembered in that way is great.

Nelson: I think for Chelsea fans, I can speak for myself, it felt like we finally came to the party. I think if you're really honest about where we were, we were the third club in London. We were always fighting for third spot in London. Arsenal were out on their own, no doubt about it. Tottenham, just because they'd done the Double in when was it, ‘61? And they won a couple of cups, so they'd still won more than us.

We were third, really. That hurt. The mood now was that we had something special here. We haven't got just one sporadic good striker like Kerry Dixon, or we haven't got just a Ray Wilkins in midfield, or a sporadic great goal. No. We've got a team. And it was exciting. It wasn't just that we had a team. It's the brand of football. We were playing the sort of football that neutrals would want to come and watch, which is quite a compliment for Chelsea.

It was a love affair, the start of a real love affair with this whole new international team, because I think it was the mid-'90s where we really became an international club. I love that team. They put the swagger back into Chelsea. The Kings Road, the Fulham Road, the last time we had that sort of swag was the early '70s with [Alan] Hudson, with Ossy [Peter Osgood] and Charlie Cooke and [Ian] Hutchinson.

There was a 20-year gap, and then we got our swagger back.

In the second long read retelling the story of the 1996/97 season, we will remember Matthew Harding on the 30th anniversary of his tragic death…