John will always be remembered at Chelsea for turning the team around from our very lowest point.

His eye for a player and deep understanding of the game produced one of the most fondly regarded Chelsea teams, a side that won the Second Division Championship in 1984 and quickly climbed into the upper reaches of the top flight, spearheaded by the exciting attacking talents of Kerry Dixon, David Speedie and Pat Nevin.

Neal’s appointment in 1981, as successor to Geoff Hurst, broke with a long tradition of giving the job to new or inexperienced managers, and it was easy to understand why the board of the day decided to give experience a try.

The club was still stricken with the deep financial problems that had hampered us for the greater part of the 1970s and had been in the Second Division for two seasons.

Forty-nine-year-old Neal had managed Wrexham to promotions and in Europe and Middlesbrough from his native north-east in the top division.

Initially life remained tough at Chelsea, the team as inconsistent as it had long been, although at our best we knocked reigning European champions Liverpool out of the FA Cup in February 1982, a packed Stamford Bridge reminiscent of better times and Neal showing tactical know-how by asking young Colin Pates to man-mark Graeme Souness (a player he had managed at Boro), thereby disrupting the Reds’ swagger.