The mere mention of the name Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink will a bring a smile to the face of most Chelsea fans – somewhat ironically, some might say, considering his reputation as one of football’s angriest men (on the pitch that is!).

Looks might not have been able to kill when it came to Jimmy – though he tried his best – but any unfortunate souls willing to put themselves in front of one of his shots were certainly taking their lives into their own hands. Few in the Premier League era have ever boasted as crisp a strike as the man who can legitimately claim to be our most prolific No.9 since the English top flight rebranded in 1992.

One of Gianluca Vialli’s last actions as Blues boss was to part with a club-record fee of £15 million to bring the Dutch striker to Stamford Bridge, convinced he was signing the missing piece of the puzzle.

Twice we had come up short in major competitions in his two full seasons in the dugout, firstly in the Premier League – when we finished only three points behind Manchester United in 1999 – and then in the Champions League, after a dramatic extra-time defeat against Barcelona.

The common consensus was that there was little wrong with the defence and midfield, but up front we were lacking the 20-goal-a-season frontman to fire us to glory, the type of player who turned those frustrating 0-0s into victories. Not since the days of Kerry Dixon had we boasted such a centre-forward, for whom the only currency they dealt in was goals.

Chris Sutton, who had signed a year before Jimmy, proved not to be that man, despite a club-record outlay on him. Now the gauntlet had been passed to a striker who had previously starred for one of our fiercest rivals.

Prolific during his spell at Leeds United in the late Nineties – having been recommended to manager George Graham by his scout Ian McNeil, who had famously served as John Neal’s assistant during Chelsea’s return to the big time in the Eighties – Hasselbaink cemented his place as one of Europe’s deadliest marksman with a devastating one-year spell with Atletico Madrid.

It took Hasselbaink no time at all to prove himself to the Chelsea fans and, more importantly, his new team-mates. He fired us ahead against Manchester United in the Charity Shield, ensuring that piece of silverware made its way to Stamford Bridge for only the second time,

‘I scored in that game and so did my good friend Mario Melchiot,’ he said. ‘We comfortably won the game 2-0 and everybody thought we were going to win the league. But we didn’t!’

Three goals in five games was a solid return at the start of his Blues career, but after the sixth, a goalless draw with Newcastle United, Vialli was sacked.

It didn’t affect Jimmy one bit. Come the end of the campaign he finished with 23 goals in the Premier League, which was enough to secure him the Golden Boot for the second time in three seasons in the English top flight. It was also the first time a Chelsea player had netted 20 goals since Dixon had done so in 1990, which ensured his price tag was never mentioned and he was an instant Blues legend.

‘Chelsea were gagging for a No.9 that was going to score between 15 and 25 goals yearly and they had not had one for a few years,’ he said in an interview with this website last summer.‘That is why when I came in and it all worked, and especially the first year, winning the Golden Boot, it made the fans even more appreciative of me.’

The following season the goals kept on coming, but this time it was in tandem with Eidur Gudjohnsen. Together they shared an almost telepathic link and with their respective skill sets so different, it meant defenders had no idea how they were going to be hit.Gudjohnsen is one of the great link players in the club’s history – once dubbed ‘the blond Maradona’ by Jose Mourinho – possessing the deftest of touches and a cool head in front of goal. He proved to be a great assist-man for Jimmy, whose incredible strength and blockbuster shot meant he was a constant menace to opposition defences.

Combining for a total of 52 goals and 29 assists in 2001/02, the pair even managed to keep the legendary Gianfranco Zola out of the starting XI for much of the season – and that took some doing.

‘Eidur and I were very close on the pitch, as you know, but also off it too,’ he said in an interview with Chelsea magazine a few years back. ‘We got on very well.

‘I have to say, he was my best-ever strike partner; it was the perfect combination for me, but also for him. I had something that he didn’t have and he definitely had something I didn’t have. So it was just good working together – and we loved working together. We were looking for each other all the time and it was a great partnership.

‘The secret to our success wasn't very secret – we just enjoyed playing together. We understood each other's movements and spoke Dutch to each other on the pitch, but I think the main thing was just enjoyment.’

When asked to choose his favourite Chelsea goals, Jimmy picked a thunderous half-volley against Manchester United in first place, just ahead of his famous perfect hat-trick against Tottenham in 2002.

What is in absolutely no doubt, however, is the choice of his favourite club from his playing career. That will always be Chelsea, where he played more games than anywhere else, as he appeared 177 times for the Blues and scored 87 goals.

Nowadays he is keeping himself busy as manager of League One side Burton Albion, where he returned for a second spell in the dugout at the start of 2021.

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