In the summer of 2012, shortly after the euphoria of winning the Champions League for the first time had washed over us all, the makings of a new generation of players arrived at Cobham hoping to take the club onto another era of success.

The headline act was Eden Hazard, the hottest young prospect in Europe at the time, who dramatically announced his decision to join the club on Twitter. Then there was Oscar, a young Brazilian midfielder whose combination of poise, power and technical prowess had drawn comparisons with Kaka.

There were other attacking players of potential too – Victor Moses and Marko Marin – about whom supporters and reporters deliberated. Could they take the step up to the next level and challenge for major titles?

Then, towards the end of August, another player walked through the doors, largely unheralded, his name a mystery to most of us. Cesar Azpilicueta was a 22-year-old full-back signed from Marseille, but originally from north-east Spain, where he had grown up in Pamplona, famous for its annual ‘running of the bulls’ in the city’s streets as part of the San Fermin festival.

The supporters were introduced to him at a live event at Stamford Bridge – ‘An Audience With’ evening with our Spanish players – held shortly after his arrival. Sat on a stool alongside Juan Mata, Fernando Torres and Oriol Romeu, he was very much one of the junior partners on stage that night, but a chorus of fans in attendance started up in unison when the microphone was passed to him.

'Az-pi-li-cue-ta! We’ll just call him Dave!'

The fact that they pronounced his name correctly was, and remains, part of the comic effect of the chant, and he flashed that now-famous grin back at them as he worked out the words.

While ‘Azpi’ remained his nickname within the dressing room, he was ‘Dave’ in the stands, and also in the streets. On one away trip, a member of staff shouted ‘Dave!’ across the hotel dining room in an attempt to get the coach driver’s attention, so when Azpi turned around to acknowledge the call, the legend was cemented. His willingness to laugh at this very English gag endeared him even more to us all.

Given he was going to be challenging Branislav Ivanovic and Ashley Cole for a place in the first team at Chelsea, the odds were stacked against him becoming a regular any time soon. Certainly, few people would have bet on him remaining here for more than a decade and becoming the first player in Blues history to win every major domestic, European and world club title in the process. But he had the right outlook from the start.

'You never know when or where your chance will come, so you have to be ready for it,' he said, and he was proved correct.

Azpi would play 508 games for the club, placing him sixth in our all-time appearances table. The largely unknown young right-back who arrived here full of hopes and dreams developed into a Chelsea captain, a European champion, a Premier League winner. But how has he done it? What was the secret to Azpilicueta’s remarkable decade in blue?

Right-back is not the most glamorous role on the pitch and he hasn’t had to deal with the fame and attention that he might have got had he achieved all of this while scoring 20 goals a season, or going on dazzling runs that make for brilliant highlights reels. Instead, he focused on doing his job to the best possible standard and, by doing so, he earned the trust of a string of managers and countless team-mates over the course of his time here.

'My game, normally, is based on fitness and I need to be in 100 per cent physical condition to play well,' he said in his first programme interview after arriving. 'I work hard to improve this quality because it is important, but I also work hard on the things that I do less well, so my all-round play will improve.'

That credo has never changed. Azpilicueta played in 48 of our record 69 competitive games in his first campaign, which he ended with a Europa League winner’s medal round his neck, despite giving away a penalty in the final.

He had to keep proving himself again and again, such was the competition for places, but it didn’t deter him. Three months into his second season here, Jose Mourinho – his third manager at the club – heralded him for his attitude after he stepped into the side for a Champions League group stage tie against Schalke having largely been a substitute up to that point in the campaign.

'I am a lucky manager to have Cesar,' he wrote in his programme notes the following weekend. 'I love these players who play where the team need them, when the coach wants, whether it is for 90 minutes or coming from the bench for one minute. For them it is the team first, the team second, and the team third – and finally they think about themselves. They train hard every day, they are self-motivated, but they are also pushing others in the same direction. So please, supporters, I hope you like him and respect him as much as I do.'

Later that season, Mourinho suggested that a team with eleven Azpilicuetas would probably win the Champions League. In the intervening months, he had progressed from a squad player to a starter, although it wasn’t at right-back, where he had played up to that point in his career, but at left-back, where he initially stepped in as a deputy for Cole and then made the position his own.

Far from moaning, Cole spoke of his admiration for the work ethic of the man who was keeping him out of the side, while Azpilicueta took the attitude that you can’t have too much of a good thing.

'I have always felt that competition is positive for the team,' he said. 'If two top quality players are in the same position and they have respect for each other, they will always know that they have to do their best to keep their place. And who wins in this situation? The team.'

No longer the fresh-faced new boy, he was becoming a fixture in the Chelsea team. The following season – his third in England – he made his 100th appearance and won the League Cup and the Premier League title for the first time.

There is no doubt that Azpilicueta embraced this country. He and his wife raised their son and two daughters here and he enjoyed his family life in the quiet Surrey suburbs. He quickly adapted to the English game too, becoming every inch the full-blooded full-back that fans love, while his unfussy versatility became an important asset over the years, as he has played on either side of a back four, on the right of a back three, at wing-back, even as an auxiliary winger.

'I always say that off the pitch I am calm and live a quiet life, but when I go on the training pitch, or play a game, I know that I’m different,' he said in a programme interview in 2017. 'I like to win and I know that you have to focus and to work hard to get what you want.

'When you mix that mentality with talent, that’s when you can achieve big things. Just talent is not enough – I learned that when I was a kid and I’ve always had it in my blood.'

That kind of application earns a player respect from his team-mates, and Azpilicueta became known as the hardest-working player at Cobham over his time here: ultra-disciplined in his fitness regime and sticking to a tried and tested routine that helped him to overcome a horrendous injury suffered as a young player in France.

He always understood the intricacies of the various roles he was called upon to fill, but also the different types of opponent he has had to face in doing so, leading to the realisation that preparation isn’t just about the body, it’s also about the mind.

One of - if not the - standout night of his career came in 2021 when we went all the way to European glory for the second time in our history, defeating Manchester City 1-0 in the final in Porto. Azpilicueta was at his best that night, making timely interventions and blocks, lifting the team when we needed it and helping to navigate the nervy late stages of the game as City threw everything at us in search of an equaliser.

Having joined us a matter of months after we had lifted the trophy for the first time, he now had the chance to lift it on behalf of his team.

'This is my first trophy as captain,' he said afterwards. 'It took three finals, and the fourth is the right one, the big one. I’m so happy and very pleased, and it means everything.

'I joined Chelsea just months after the Champions League win in 2012 and I always wanted to come here and help the club to win more of the biggest titles. It’s taken nine years but we’ve done it, and it’s just fantastic. It’s been a difficult and tough season, but it’s ended in the best way possible.'

The UEFA Super Cup and the Club World Cup followed the next season as he completed his set.

'When I first arrived, I was 22, and it’s normal that my place in the team was different than it is now, but I wanted to be myself, to act the way I am, to train hard every day, to be humble, to learn.

'My goal is always to get the maximum out of everybody. Whenever I feel someone needs it, I will always be there to help.'

Azpi's - or should we say Dave's - selflessness, professionalism and talent saw him become a Chelsea legend during 11 trophy-laden years and his place in our Team of 120 is just reward for a player Blues fans will always hold dear to their heart.

The majority of the above article was first carried in our matchday programme. You can buy past copies and future programmes by clicking here.