It’s like Soccer Saturday meets Austin Powers on a blue-tinted stroll down the King’s Road. Steve McQueen might spill out in one breath and in the next it’s Gianfranco Zola, Dave Sexton or Petar Borota as Sportsmail sits down with six former Chelsea favourites.

Ron Harris (now 70), John Hollins (68), Gary Chivers (54), Kerry Dixon (53), John Spencer (44) and Michael Duberry (39) span 40 unbroken years at the club and they have their say on Jose Mourinho’s newly-built team.There’s the signings of Diego Costa and Nemanja Matic and Frank Lampard’s exit and the longevity of John Terry, who is 152 games behind Harris’s record of 795 Chelsea appearances and still going strong.

Former Blues (L-R) John Spencer, John Hollins, Kerry Dixon, Gary Chivers, Ron Harris and Michael Duberry

HARRIS: I saw John and Frank at the Player of the Year awards and told them they wouldn’t beat my record. I’ve seen Frank off and it will take John two or three more years. I don’t think it will be broken. But since he’s been back under Jose, he’s been playing better than ever.

SPENCER: He’s in the last year of his contract, but he can play for another five years, given that strikers don’t run the channels any more. He doesn’t have to chase the likes of Andy Cole. The modern game can be predictable. Nobody wants to see the ball passed over 30 yards any more, because you can’t be a connoisseur of the game if you do that. No one runs in behind.

CHIVERS: He’s got two midfielders sat in front of him, he plays 25 yards from his goal and he’s got it sussed. They miss him when he’s not there.

DUBERRY: He’s like our Maldini. You don’t know which foot he prefers, then out comes the left and he pings that one. He’s an eight or nine every week. We never saw that when he was coming through. We just knew there was a lad who wore shorts and a T-shirt in training no matter how cold it was.

(L-R) Hollins, Spencer, Duberry and Chivers have their say on the current crop of Chelsea stars

Kerry Dixon (left) has been impressed with the natural goalscoring instincts of Diego Costa

The four Blues legends pictured here made almost 1,000 appearances for Chelsea between them

CHIVERS: I would have kept Lampard for another year and done exactly what Manchester City have done with him, use him from the bench. He’ll always get goals.

DIXON: Frank is arguably the greatest player to wear the blue shirt. Everyone leaves one day, but he might prove to those who didn’t offer him a new contract that it was a year too early. He’ll get a wonderful ovation when City come here next month. It’s not his fault it ended up this way. I wish him all the best in the States. I only wish he’d hurry up and get there, because this title is going to be tight.

CHIVERS: Chelsea will buy in January. Don’t you think they’ll get a striker? What if Costa gets injured?

After signing from Readin in 1983, former striker Dixon scored 193 goals during his time at Chelsea

Hollins was twice the club's Player of the Year and made 592 appearances for the Blues

DIXON: Costa has been a revelation. Remember that penalty for Atletico in the Champions League semi-final at the Bridge when JT had a word to put him off. He just snarled. Then he scored. He’s a strong character. He’ll get 25-30 goals this season. Mark Hughes was a great striker but I don’t think he scored 20 goals in a season. You’re judged on goals.

HOLLINS: Jimmy Greaves would make it look easy, never panicked. It was temperament. And there’s Ossie (Peter Osgood), of course, he was class. Bobby Tambling was unusual. He wouldn’t score many headers. Most would be left foot.

DIXON: If you’re talking goalscorers, you have to say Lamps was the best. It’s an instinct. Costa has it. Hit the target. My rule was: Why pass it? What if he misses? You might as well miss yourself.

Former Blues striker John Spencer says Cesc Fabregas was signed for instant success

HARRIS: Jose brought in three very influential players this summer: Courtois, Fabregas and Costa. They badly needed someone up front and he’s taken the pressure off Hazard to score goals. Hazard’s playing with freedom. This is a better side than the one he had in 2004.

DUBERRY: They’ve got to win something before we talk about a great team. They’re only three points clear. No one wants to be just a good team.

SPENCER: It’s a results business. To be the greatest Chelsea team they’ve got to win the Champions League. Whatever you think about it, the team Roberto Di Matteo had won the Champions League.

DUBERRY: Every round, people thought they were going out.

SPENCER: It’s in the history books but the talent and potential of this team can surpass that.

HARRIS: Everything revolves around Matic. Left foot, big fella, he’s a winner. Ivanovic is my kind of player, fully committed and dangerous from set-pieces. Supporters like to see someone having a go. I’ll bet he’s the first name on the sheet. Azpilicueta is another I like. He defends properly.

SPENCER: Matic is like a modern-day Vieira: big, athletic, goes box to box, wins it and gives it and he can score. They missed him when they lost at Newcastle.

SPENCER: Mourinho signs players for instant success. He knows strengths and weaknesses and when the market opens it’s bang, Costa and Fabregas! Manchester United are bringing in Rojo, who might be a good player, Herrera, might be there, Blind, might be.

Ron Harris claims Chelsea team revolves around box-to-box midfielder Nemanja Matic

Dixon believes Frank Lampard's instinct made the midfielder Chelsea's best ever goalscorer

CHIVERS: He went with the strong spine: goalkeeper, centre halves, two in midfield and a striker.

HOLLINS: He’s working with an open chequebook but you’ve still got to know your players. Roman Abramovich has been fantastic for Chelsea.

CHIVERS: One million per cent. If Chelsea are your team and you’re not happy with the Abramovich era there’s something wrong with you.

HOLLINS: He’s brought the history back into the club. He’s brought back to life some of the good things we did. Don’t forget we won the FA Cup in the mud and went into Europe and won the Cup-winners’ Cup, beating Real Madrid.

Much of that was down to Dave Sexton. He’d drive straight to Gatwick after games and fly to watch games in Italy or Spain, picking up ideas, and come back with a little plan on a scrap of paper. He’d say: ‘John, why not run in here today’. It was all about making space. And it would work. He was the top man by a mile. Now, he’d be the one everybody wanted, like Mourinho. Mourinho learned from Bobby Robson and Bobby often swapped ideas with Dave. There’s a connection.

Dave was once giving his team-talk when Dickie Attenborough comes into the dressing room with a guy almost hidden behind him. Dave says: ‘Hello Dickie’ and carries on, but Dickie says he’s brought a friend. It’s only Steve McQueen. So, Dave’s lost it and he’s going: ‘I love your films Steve.’ We’re all shouting: ‘Dave, there’s a game going on here.’ Dave goes: ‘Yeah, but it’s f****** Steve McQueen. I love his films.’

Michael Duberry has branded John Terry as Chelsea's Paolo Maldini

Milan defender Paolo Maldini tackles Chelsea's Gianfranco Zola during a Champions League tie in 1999

SPENCER: Stamford Bridge was so big and open. I know Jose complained, but it’s noisier now than when we played.

CHIVERS: I remember scoring at the Shed End, looking at the crowd and thinking, ‘I’m never going to make that’. It was a 50-yard run.

SPENCER: The pitch was terrible.

CHIVERS: We had to train behind the goal because we weren’t allowed on the pitch but then the pitch was s***. If I sliced a ball, I’d tap it down with my foot.

SPENCER: You can’t do that now with HD cameras everywhere.

CHIVERS: One summer they had a Kerry Packer cricket match on it. They laid an artificial strip and we started the season with no grass down the middle.

HOLLINS: We’d go to see the groundsmen to complain about the pitch and out would come the bottle of Teacher’s, and that was that.

CHIVERS: We used to have a bottle of scotch and a bottle of brandy in the dressing room and have a quick nip sometimes if it was cold. I remember having to wrestle the bottle from our goalkeeper Petar Borota once before a game at Grimsby. He’d necked a load and his cheeks were red as anything. Petar was a great goalkeeper. The only problem was he was useless at football. He couldn’t play with his feet.

Famous film maker and Chelsea fan Richard Attenborough with manager Jose Mourinho in 2004

Attenborough interrupted a team talk by bringing legendary actor Steve McQueen into the dressing room

SPENCER: This is the best time to be a player, with the facilities and rewards. I hope they appreciate it.

DUBERRY: Too many want the trimmings of being a footballer and don’t want to work hard.

HOLLINS: They have everything. They come into the building and there’s a place to put their laptops, there’s your pills for the day, do you want a rub? I do wish they’d smile a bit more. Everything is so deep and serious.

DUBERRY: Fans can’t get to the players. They drive straight underground into the car park at the Bridge. Training is closed.

CHIVERS: I’d drive in with Mike Fillery from Mitcham and if we saw a couple of fans, we’d pick them up. Why would you not? We’re all going to the same place.

DUBERRY: The culture changed. I remember Spenny’s first day. The YTS lads had a lunch allowance of £4 at the kebab house. Imagine that now for young athletes. Spenny looked at us like we weren’t serious with our doners and chips. He had an omelette.

SPENCER: I’d eat pies, sausages, chips and beans until Graeme Souness and Ray Wilkins came to Rangers having played in Italy.

Dutchman Ruud Gullit changed the culture at Stamford Bridge, says Duberry

DUBERRY: It was a different dynamic when the players like Ruud Gullit started coming in. That was a coup.

What a player. Remember that Tottenham game when he walked down the line rolling the ball under his foot while he held off Steve Sedgley; all the way down the line, rolling the ball, rolling the ball?

Guys like Ruud and Luca (Vialli) thought we were too naive in England with marking and diving. They would use hands and get touch-tight and go down if there was a touch. It’s now a case of if you can’t beat ’em join ’em.

CHIVERS: Diving for me is a no-go area. It’s very frustrating to watch. We never had it, apart from one or two individuals. Now everyone seems to do it. I was at the Hull game. I don’t know what Gary Cahill was doing. Well, looking for a penalty, I suppose.

DUBERRY: There has to be honesty but no one is backing down. I watch my seven-year-old and one of the kids rolls around when he gets touched. It’s comical, but there you are. The laws aren’t stopping it. Some players look like they practise it. It’s part of the game that comes with the money. If it means getting through to the Champions League quarter-final, and another £20million, then you do it.

SPENCER: Zola was the best player I’ve seen close-up.

DUBERRY: You know, at the time, I was thinking, ‘Why are we signing Zola when we’ve got John Spencer. We don’t need a replacement for Spenny, he’s playing unbelievable’.

SPENCER: I thought that as well.

DUBERRY: Then I saw Zola train and… yeah, that’s why. Wow!