Our lead feature reflects on the life and achievements of a one-off personality in the game, and one of the most talented players from a generation of Blues youth products who altered the course of the club’s history in the 1960s.

‘Before El Tel, before the Three Lions, before any of the above, he was Venners and he was the jewel in the crown of a Chelsea youth setup that produced a generation of household names,’ writes features editor, Dominic Bliss. ‘This was his first footballing home, and he never forgot it.’

We also dug into the Chelsea archive to republish a full interview with Venables about his time at the club that he represented more times than any other in his career, playing 237 times for the first team and winning the League Cup and two FA Youth Cup titles in his eight years here.

‘I didn’t want to leave Chelsea, I would have been happy to stay there always because of the closeness of the players,’ said Venables. ‘We all got on so great then, it was wonderful. There was hardly ever a bad word said between us and the players were very close. I think we all would have liked to have gone on and on, but that wasn’t to be as is often the case, and things had to change. But I’ve got wonderful memories, I would think that my best memory of football was playing at Chelsea.’

Our long read looks back at that remarkable youth team at the beginning of the Swinging Sixties, who went on to become the Kings of the King’s Road in the decade that followed.

We also have all the info you need ahead of the big game against Brighton, as well as all your regular columns from Mauricio Pochettino, Reece James, Emma Hayes and our Academy coaching staff.

Don’t forget to pick up your copy from the programme sellers around Stamford Bridge before the game, or order one from the online shop of our publishing partners, Reach Sport.