Gianluca Vialli gave me my first-team debut in 1998 and made everyone at Chelsea feel like they were his friend
Photograph: Action Images/Brandon MalonePhotograph: Action Images/Brandon Malone– people just smile. He gave me my debut as an 18-year-old in 1998 when he was player-manager and at a time when there was no certainty I would get it. But you ask anyone from that youth team, even those who did not get their chance under him, and they will all say the same thing: that they loved him. He was special. Nobody will ever find a bad word to say about Luca.
Luca had won the FA Cup as a player in 1997 at the end of his first season with Chelsea and he got the player-manager’s job in February 1998 after Ruud Gullit’s sacking. He gave me my first game at Derby in April of that year and the following weekend, he played me at Stamford Bridge for the first time in a 2-0 win over Tottenham.
Whenever I get together with my old youth team friends, we bring up stories about him. How humorous he was. ‘Remember when he did this or when that happened?’ He could be really passionate and serious but he was able to flip it and when he went into a jokey mode … As I say, you can’t say his name without smiling.
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