When Chelsea signed Jones, coincidentally, from Sheffield United in 1991, little did we know what the next 30 years would hold for a man who had made his name as a key part of the Wimbledon side that shocked Liverpool to win the FA Cup in 1988.

Since then, he has gone on to rack up more than 100 acting credits and, for a time, he was the go-to-guy in Hollywood when it came to casting the no-nonsense tough guy.

Back in 1991, though, he was the player you loved to hate if he was playing against your team, but you loved him if he was on your side, winding up the opposition and getting stuck in. Boy, had we hated him when he had lined up against us for the Dons, Leeds United and Sheffield United.

But then, ahead of his debut against Luton, he started a rousing rendition of One Man Went To Mow for the fans at the Bridge to join in. That was all it took to win over the supporters – he was one of us.

There were some memorable moments during his 12 months as a Blue, some of which were for the right reason – such as an unforgettable strike at Anfield in a rare Chelsea win at the stadium at that time – the kind of things we were told he would not offer to the side.

Sometimes, though, he reverted to type. One such occasion came against his old team-mates at Sheffield United, when he ensured we got off to a fast start – but not on the scoreboard.

Remarkably, only three seconds had elapsed when he went clattering into Dane Whitehouse, setting the tone for a fiery FA Cup fifth-round tie at Stamford Bridge in February 1992.

The referee, Keith Burge, wasted no time producing a yellow card for Jones, which meant he had written what is thought to be an ignominious chapter in football history for the fastest booking ever recorded. Incredibly, he had set the previous record a year earlier, although he was slow off the mark that time as he took as long as five seconds to get his late tackle in early!

You might think such a reckless action, which left him ‘walking a disciplinary tightrope’ for the next 89 minutes and 57 seconds, would attract the ire of his manager, but this was a very different era of English football to what we are familiar with today.

‘Vinnie’s booking was worth it for what it did for us,’ beamed Ian Porterfield after the game. ‘It showed Sheffield United what we were prepared to do and it had an effect.’

In fairness, it certainly wound the Blades up. John Gannon joined Jones in the book 45 seconds later for an ungainly lunge on Clive Allen, and with only three minutes on the clock the referee had beckoned both captains for a chat after our midfielder had instigated another skirmish.

Jones’ former Sheffield United team-mate Brian Gayle offered his take on it all: ‘I’ve never seen anything like those first five minutes, but anything can happen when the Jones boy is playing.’ Quite.

Gayle was speaking to the press just after he had been in the players’ bar, where Jones had been ‘blowing cigar smoke in my face and gloating about the quarter-finals’, as the Blues secured a 1-0 win through a fine Graham Stuart goal.

The man himself kept his counsel, but he could not resist a quip on the subject in his autobiography.

‘I must have been too high, too wild, too strong or too early because, after three seconds, I could hardly have been too bloody late!’