It was on that day in 1996 that former World Player of the Year (twice), winner of the Ballon d’Or, Champions League and Euros with club and country, Ruud Gullit became the Blues’ and the Premier League’s first black head coach.

And how it came about makes him arguably football’s first-ever democratically-elected manager.

The story began almost a year earlier when player-manager Glenn Hoddle and chief executive Colin Hutchinson flew to Italy with a view to enticing the Dutch great to west London on a free transfer.

The pair, alongside chair Ken Bates and millionaire fan and director Matthew Harding, had just committed to a period of investing heavily to raise the club’s global profile and revenue, with lucrative UEFA campaigns the primary target.

Through convoluted negotiations Gullit became intrigued by the project and signed up for the 1995/96 season. After 10 May 1996 Chelsea’s name was on the back page of newspapers around the world and for all the right reasons.

A club whose supporters once racially abused their own black player Paul Canoville 24 years earlier were now embracing the challenges and benefits of a more multicultural outlook.

The figurehead of a proud, dreadlocked icon of the game played an inestimable role in expediting that change.

Few footballers have had such an immediately profound and sustained impact on the performance and culture of a club as Gullit at Stamford Bridge.

Turning 34 but striding the field like some libero colossus on his debut at home to Everton, the Amsterdam-born stylist wowed the crowd and his boss, Glenn Hoddle.

‘It was like watching an 18-year-old playing in a match of 12-year-olds,’ cooed the Blues’ player-manager.

‘He makes decisions for other players when the ball is at his feet. That is what a world class player is all about.’

Gullit was the standout performer and voted the club's Player of the Year over the course of a season in which the improving Londoners reached the FA Cup semi-finals for the second time in three seasons.

As the campaign drew to a close it was disclosed that Hoddle would replace Terry Venables as England manager after three years in the Bridge wheelhouse and an election of a different kind followed.

Having witnessed his quality and intelligence on the field and authority among team-mates, fans had already decided Gullit should be next to receive the nod.

Media reports suggested the Chelsea board favoured Ray Harford, who had helped Kenny Dalglish steer Blackburn to the Premier League crown in 1995 but left in protest at Alan Shearer’s sale, or George Graham, the renowned title-grinder with despised rivals Arsenal.

Graham could cite a mid-Sixties playing career at the Bridge but his attritional brand of football was not what the club was looking for.

For the final match of the season on 5 May 1996 fans brought Gullit banners and vocal encouragement to the board to make the progressive call.

The loss to Blackburn that day played second fiddle to perpetual choruses of ‘Ruudi! Ruudi!’ and ‘You can stick George Graham up your a***!’ – Bates eventually standing up in the directors box and conducting the singing of the latter.

Five days later the club bowed to popular opinion and announced Gullit would be taking over as player-manager, though Hutchinson revealed he had held outline talks with the Dutchman a week earlier.

‘He says he loves the English game,’ the director said. ‘He is very settled at Chelsea and in London and he sees his future very much in England. Everyone has seen his playing quality and he is obviously a very deep thinker about the game.’

Seasoned backroom staff would take on the administrative burden to allow Gullit time to sprinkle his stardust over the squad.

Part of Gullit’s personal aura came from his ability to charm the cynical football press pack with philosophical musings on life alongside insights from a brilliant football brain. The goodwill for him to succeed was remarkably widespread beyond west London.

Few mentioned the new manager’s ethnicity but history had been made by the club again – the Blues had appointed our first black captain, Paul Elliott, four years earlier in 1992. Perhaps that showed the journey the club had already made.

And the cultural transformation in SW6 was only just beginning. Gullit’s presence opened doors closed to lesser mortals and a string of brilliant signings ensued, beginning with Juventus’s recent Champions League winner, Gianluca Vialli.

The Italy legend admitted the Dutchman’s presence clinched his switch to a club he supported from afar since boyhood.

‘There were other top-level possibilities in Italy,’ Vialli revealed, ‘but I decided to change. Gullit is a friend, he speaks Italian and knows Italian football – it was certainly a factor.’

After turning heads at AC Milan, the Netherlander had moved to Sampdoria in 1992 just as Vialli was joining Juventus but they became pals nonetheless.

Everyone at the club sensed the headway being made, with Nigel Spackman giving the perspective of the English contingent. ‘It’s a marvellous signing for Ruud Gullit and a fantastic one for Chelsea Football Club,’ he enthused.

The same Serie A bubble helped entice Roberto Di Matteo to the Bridge during Gullit’s first pre-season, and months later Gianfranco Zola joined the brilliant ex-pat Italians under the Netherlander’s tutelage.

While those and other players began their climb up the all-time great lists, their fluid attacking style earned a sobriquet of Gullit’s making: sexy football.

Not since the Kings of the King’s Road team had Chelsea played with such swagger. And after his half-time tactical changes at 0-2 to Liverpool turned round three of the FA Cup at the Bridge into a sensational 4-2 thrashing, everyone began to believe something special was happening.

When Gullit spoke of Matthew Harding – tragically killed in a helicopter crash in October 1996 – as a ‘blue angel’ looking down on his beloved team’s progress to the final, he once again captured the thoughts of the multitude.

Of course the Londoners went on to beat Middlesbrough 2-0 to win our first major silverware since 1971 and Gullit looked as sensational in his official club suit as he did on the pitch.

He was now the first coach from overseas as well as the first black manager to lift the severable old trophy and the on-pitch celebrations with tens of thousands of Chelsea fans present went on for an age.

So many of that generation who arrived at the club from abroad fell in love with it, including Gullit.

Even after his shock departure in February 1998, the pioneer who delivered our longed-for trophy has shown his affection for the club.

His time at the club may have been brief but Gullit will forever be considered a Chelsea legend.