Roy Bentley obituary

Roy Bentley, who has died aged 93, became the first deep-lying centre-forward in English football, in the style of the Hungarian Nándor Hidegkuti. His inspired wanderings – now dropping back, now moving to the wings – combined with sharp opportunism with head and foot, were a crucial factor in Chelsea’s first league championship win in 1954-55, when he was captain. He scored 21 goals in 41 games that season and altogether amassed 150 goals from 367 appearances for Chelsea, the joint-fifth highest total in the club’s history.

Bentley spent eight years at Stamford Bridge after signing in 1948, finishing top scorer in seven consecutive seasons, and was appointed captain in 1951. His exploits for Chelsea earned him a dozen appearances for England between 1949 and 1955, including two matches in the 1950 World Cup finals in Brazil.

Born in Bristol, into a family with eight children, Bentley played initially as a young amateur for Bristol Rovers before, in 1941, joining Bristol City as a professional, initially as an inside-forward. But he spent much of the second world war in the Royal Navy on board destroyers that escorted Atlantic convoys.

In 1946 he was transferred to Newcastle United, then bent on getting out of the Second Division, for an £8,000 fee. Although in his first season at St James’ Park he scored 18 times in 36 matches – including in the 13-0 demolition of Newport County, the biggest ever win in the football league – his 18 months at the club were ill-starred, as he was afflicted by a mysterious illness that caused him to lose 13kg (two stone) in weight. He made only a dozen appearances for Newcastle in his second season there, scoring just three goals, so when Chelsea brought him to London in 1948 there were fears that they might have made a mistake.

Chelsea, however, got abundant value for their £12,500 transfer fee. Moving to centre-forward, fast in both thought and movement, Bentley proved an inspiration. As his health improved so did his form, and in his first six months at Chelsea he regained 7kg. His first cap for England came in 1949 against Sweden in Stockholm. England lost that match 3-1, but Bentley consolidated his role at centre-forward the following season, scoring the only goal of the game against Scotland at Hampden Park in April 1950. That goal meant England won the British International Championship, which doubled as a qualifying group for the 1950 World Cup finals in Brazil.

In Brazil, Bentley played for England against Chile in Rio de Janeiro, then in the horrifying 1-0 defeat by a scratch US team in Belo Horizonte, during which he hit the post three times. He lost his place after that World Cup, returning to the national side in 1952, against Wales, but was not chosen for the 1954 World Cup, although he had been in the provisional squad. Early in the following season, however, he was recalled to the colours at Wembley against the World Cup holders, West Germany, who were much diminished by illness. For once England picked a team full of gifted ball players, and they won in style, 3-1. Bentley won four caps that season, but they would be his last. In his 12 appearances for England he scored nine goals.

At Chelsea, under the management of Ted Drake, Bentley as captain had helped to foster camaraderie and discipline among the players as they were eighth in the 1953-54 season, and in 1954-55 they finished four points ahead of Wolverhampton Wanderers, Portsmouth and Sunderland to win their first championship title – also their first major honour. However, the effort of getting there had taken its toll, and before the 1956-57 season Chelsea had a clear out of the championship winning side, selling Bentley to their neighbours, Fulham, where he found a new lease of life. Moving back successfully to right-half in 1957-58, he then went to centre-half the following season, where his technical aplomb marked him out as that rarity then: a footballing centre-back.

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He stayed at Craven Cottage until 1962, when Fulham gave him a free transfer to Queens Park Rangers. After severe problems with his stomach muscles, he defied the advice of four doctors who had told him he should no longer play, and successfully captained Rangers’ Third Division side. Football down at that level, he opined, was if anything harder, since you could never be sure what an opponent was going to do.

Later, at QPR, Bentley became involved in coaching and administration. Early in 1963 the club reluctantly let him go to become manager of Reading, where he stayed for six years. But like so many managers before him, he failed to get the club out of the Third Division. When he was eventually sacked, he admitted to being “shocked and saddened” but conceded: “I have had a free hand, the board never interfered, and therefore I am not going to make excuses.”

In 1969, at the age of 45, he was given the managerial job at Swansea, then in the Fourth Division. There he encouraged local schoolboys to join in the training and one of them, a grateful Robbie James, then 12 years old, would later play for Wales. Bentley won Swansea promotion to the Third Division, but his time at the club came to an end in 1972. Unable to find another managerial post, he turned his back on the game, subsequently taking up journalism.

For a while he also had some success playing semi-professional poker in conjunction with his wife, Violet (nee Upton), whom he had married in 1946 and with whom he had two daughters. However, he returned to Reading in 1977 as club secretary and stayed there until 1984, when he took up a similar post with Aldershot. In retirement in Berkshire he remained a regular and popular visitor to Chelsea home games.

When Chelsea won the league championship for a second time in 2005 he received a huge ovation as he carried the trophy on to the Stamford Bridge pitch before it was handed to over to the then captain, John Terry.