When Graeme Le Saux returned to Stamford Bridge from Blackburn Rovers in 1997, the fee was impressive for a full-back, especially one that the club had sold four years earlier. But, in the words of then managing director Colin Hutchinson: ‘Selling him was a mistake which took £5 million to rectify.’

Any supporter forced to leave Chelsea behind in 1993 only to return four years down the line would have been dazzled by the near-wholesale transformation of the club in those years.

Familiar faces would have been few and far between in the starting line-up, the stadium almost unrecognisable and a new continental flair added to the team’s playing style.

Imagine that and you would be somewhere close to realising the emotions and the changes experienced by Graeme Le Saux in 1997. At that time, the England left-back was at his peak and he wanted to demonstrate that to the supporters who had seen him as a raw talent in the late Eighties and early Nineties.

‘I was offered the opportunity to come back to Chelsea, which was a big decision for me, going back where I had a sort of chequered history,’ he says of the move.

‘Paying that much for someone they sold four years earlier takes a lot of bravery from a club, and it meant a huge amount to me as it showed how much they wanted me.’

It wasn’t just Graeme who had improved since his departure. The club had grown in stature with the arrival of the likes of Glenn Hoddle, Mark Hughes and, of course, Ruud Gullit. And it was the former who began to attract the even bigger names that Chelsea supporters became accustomed to during that period.

‘Compared with my previous spell at the club, the atmosphere was completely different,’ he says. ‘It was incredibly positive and the standard of football was much better. There were some great influences.

‘In fact, going through that team, there was a character in each position, from Frank Leboeuf and Marcel Desailly in defence, through to Gus Poyet, Robbie Di Matteo and Dennis Wise in midfield and Franco Zola up front with Hughesy.’

It was a very different Chelsea side Le Saux joined when he came over from Jersey in 1987. Before the European superstars had arrived with their unique characters off the pitch and their world-class quality on it, there was another Chelsea that Graeme found it tough to fit into.

‘It was quite a hostile environment really,’ he recalls. ‘The club was going through a difficult spell and John Hollins got the sack not long after I joined – it was a tough place to be at that time. You had to have a strong character to survive in that sort of atmosphere.

‘Because the club got relegated, everybody was looking out for themselves and certain groups of players became dominant, so it was very political. And for a young player trying to develop it was always going to be hard.’

But it wasn’t all doom and gloom for the young Le Saux, who had been recommended to Hollins while he was in Jersey to present the island’s player of the year award. Arguably, the club’s best talent upon his arrival was left-back Tony Dorigo, which offered him the ideal opportunity to hone his own skills and learn from an international footballer.

‘Tony forced himself into the England squad and from my perspective I had no chance of getting into the side, and cover was Clive Wilson who was another excellent player. They were two really good guys, but I just kept my head down and did my best in the reserves.

‘You learn a lot from all the people around you and although it was a tough environment, there were some very good influences there as well. I was not only learning about football, but also about living in London and discovering myself away from home. I had come from a small island and was finding out what London had to offer. It was a fairly unstable time, but equally very exciting on the field.

‘My first big game memory is when we played Spurs at Stamford Bridge and I played against Terry Fenwick, who had been playing for England. I had a really good game and did everything but score. People who remember that game still say that it was one of my best – that was when I came onto the scene and made an impression.’

Once he eventually broke into the team in the 1990/91 season, Le Saux often played on the left side of midfield and he struggled to make the position his own.

‘I didn’t have one position that a manager could say: “Right, that’s where you play,” and that added to the inconsistency,’ he remembers.

‘But it was something that helped me develop as a footballer because eventually I became known as an attacking full-back with Blackburn and, subsequently, England, where I played in different systems as a left-back, wing-back and on the left of midfield.’

That versatility didn’t impress David Webb when he took over as manager at Stamford Bridge in 1993. The former defensive stalwart arrived at the club with fresh ideas, ideas that Le Saux was not a part of. The promising left-back was sold to Blackburn almost immediately after Webb had taken the reins at Chelsea and he departed determined to prove a point to the man who so quickly discarded him.

‘Webb was my fourth manager at Chelsea in six years, which shows how unsettled the club was,’ Le Saux points out. ‘He took over, saw me play for half a game and decided I was rubbish. He basically said that he didn’t think I had a future. I proved him wrong ,didn’t I!’

Le Saux soon found himself in the international fold after his move to Blackburn. By the 1994/95 season, he had slotted straight into Kenny Dalglish’s newly assembled squad and earned a place in Terry Venables’ England team.

Now at the beginning of his prime, Le Saux became a Premiership champion with Rovers in 1995 and was viewed as the country’s best full-back by many in the game. But the atmosphere at Blackburn soon soured as Dalglish moved on and the leadership of that team was lost somewhat.

Elsewhere, a new era was on the horizon at his former West London stamping ground as the arrival of Hoddle and Gullit heralded the new continental Chelsea who would compete for honours in the near future.

And following Gullit’s ascendancy into management, the board offered him funds to improve Chelsea’s FA Cup-winning squad further. Only the best would suffice, and with Scott Minto moving on, there was a vacancy at left-back.

In August 1997, he returned to the side of characters he so vividly described, and he was happy working under Gullit. But, as was the case with Hollins in 1987, the boss parted company with Chelsea not long after Le Saux had signed.

‘I’ve seen off a few managers in my time,’ he joked. ‘Ruud got sacked and Luca took over and we were successful under him, but with Ruud’s team. It upset the balance of the club a bit and the direction, because if you look at the best clubs, they have consistency in their management and I just think it gives players an understanding with the manager.’

Fortunately, though, Gianluca Vialli was able to take over with relatively little upheaval, having been a player at the club under Gullit. The Italian won five trophies in his time as manager, although Le Saux has memories of missed opportunities.

‘I didn’t play in the Cup Winners’ Cup final because I had a calf injury three or four weeks before,’ he says. ‘I was out there with them and I played in every game leading up to the final, so I won the Cup Winners’ Cup, if you like.

‘The semi-final tie with Vicenza at the Bridge was special and the atmosphere was fantastic. That place rocked when the supporters were up for the game, and the Chelsea fans were so noisy away from home, they always impressed me.

'And when it got going at Stamford Bridge it was brilliant – there was normally a really positive atmosphere and the supporters understood that we were doing the best we could and we had a very good record at home during those years.’

There was more frustration to come when he missed the successful FA Cup final in 2000.

‘I had missed most of that season after breaking my ankle up at Blackburn,’ he recalls. ‘I had two operations on my ankle and it took nine or ten months to recover from.

‘So it was a terrible personal year for me because we’d started well, and played some fantastic games in the Champions League, most notably against Galatasaray in Turkey when we beat them 5-0. They went on to win the UEFA Cup unbeaten that season, so it shows what a great achievement that was.’

Once Vialli moved on following a poor start to the 2000/01 campaign, a new era was ushered in and things began to come to an end for that much-loved Blues generation.

‘Claudio Ranieri took over and that’s when we really lost our momentum because he broke the team up,’ Le Saux remembered. ‘There were probably players that he had to move on as part of the transition of bringing in younger players, but he did it in a way that disrupted the momentum that we’d got going so we were unable to win anything with him.’

The old order went out one door – in the shape of Wise, Poyet and Leboeuf – while in came a host of signings with a mixed success rate. Le Saux remained, though, and was still here as we returned to the Champions League with a dramatic victory over Liverpool on the final day in 2002/03 – it also proved to be his last game for Chelsea.

For the fresh-faced islander who arrived 16 years earlier, it was a fitting finale to a wonderful Blues career.

- A version of this article was first published in 2006