Legendary Chelsea hardman Ron 'Chopper' Harris’ on his battles with Man Utd

Ron ‘Chopper’ Harris is early. ‘I was only ever late for tackles,’ he says, standing behind the Shed End at Stamford Bridge, where his unmistakable portrait decorates a stone wall, the numbers and medals of his legend running alongside.

Chelsea’s record appearance holder — 795 games between 1961 and 1980 — will be back here on Monday for the visit of Manchester United. How the current vintage could do with his sort on the pitch right now, not that he believes he would last long.

‘I don’t think I was dirty — a few of my opponents might disagree — but everyone knew what I was about, and that was hard, committed. I knew how far to push it,’ says Harris, a statement supported by his one red card. ‘But the game’s changed. Today, with VAR? I’d be lucky to see out the warm-up!’

Harris, at 74, is happy living with his memories, and Monday's fixture evokes more than most.

‘The one player I couldn’t get near, the best I played against,’ he says, without making mention of the name, not that he needs to.

‘I was told to go everywhere with George Best. One day he’d given me a right chasing. I felt dizzy at half-time.

‘Tommy Docherty said, “I thought I told you to mark him closely?” I’d tried, but by the time I got near, his team-mates were already shaking his hand. I asked, “What do you want me to do? Break his leg and get sent off?” Doc said, “Yes! They would miss him a lot more than we’d miss you!”’

So did he? ‘No chance, you had to catch him first.’

Best joked that of all his action pictures, Harris was in the majority. There is one piece of footage the former Chelsea captain has seen far too often.

‘It was a cup game. He was running through on goal but he’s slightly overrun the ball. I thought, “F****** hell, here’s your chance, finally”. So I’ve slid in and kicked him, waist high. But he’s somehow ridden it, danced around Peter Bonetti and put it in. It was the opening clip on Grandstand for years — watching that, I was sure I’d catch him one day!’

Harris ared better against Spurs marksman Jimmy Greaves, including a man-to-man job in the 1967 FA Cup Final.

‘Nineteen games against me… one goal. I rarely kicked the ball in those matches, but if he didn’t score it was job done. Saying that, we got beat 2-1 in the final, so it was little consolation. I was 22, the youngest captain in Cup final history, and I remember looking at Dave Mackay lifting the Cup and thinking, “B*****ks, that could have been me”.’

Greaves later wrote that his minder was ‘an evil git’ — albeit in the foreword to Harris’s book — and he once emerged from a hospital visit to reveal he’d had surgery to replace his ‘Ron Harris Memorial Knee’. It was a recurring theme.

Leeds United winger Eddie Gray was shaken and then shackled by Harris in the 1970 FA Cup final replay. ‘Eddie had given Dave Webb a runaround in the first game (a 2-2 draw at Wembley), so Dave Sexton put me on him at Old Trafford. I was told, “Follow him everywhere and make your mark”. It took me longer than I’d hoped.’

How long? ‘Eight minutes…’ Gray barely got a kick after Harris’s studs had impacted on his knee. Chelsea won 2-1, Harris lifting the Cup for the first time in the club’s history. A year later and he had his hands on their first European trophy after victory over Real Madrid in the Cup Winners’ Cup. He and Gray were later reunited at a golf day.

‘Eddie got up in the bar and said, “I’d like to make a special presentation to Chopper”, and he gives me this screw-in stud. “Where’s that from?” I asked. Eddie says, “My kneecap!”’

Harris now works for Chelsea in matchday hospitality lounges and, as we retire for a coffee, former team-mate and fellow host Bobby Tambling — the club’s record goalscorer before Frank Lampard — listens in. There is one question that needs answering, how was Harris only red-carded once?

‘I wasn’t sent off at all, actually. It was rescinded. It was an FA Cup game at Brighton and there was some pushing and shoving in the wall. Eddie Spearritt went down holding his face, I never touched him, but off I went. I appealed and by the time I went in front of the FA, a Brighton fan had written a letter saying he’d seen everything and it was a crime I’d been sent off — the fella was a vicar. So even God was on my side!’

Chelsea boss Maurizio Sarri could do with some divine intervention. Harris listened to the Italian publicly question his players’ commitment and has some sympathy, but there is also frustration. ‘If that’s true then he’s got to sort it out. But if a few of them aren’t pulling their weight, why not play the youngsters?

‘I played in the youngest Chelsea side in history and most of us were local lads. We only had two foreigners — Eddie McCreadie and Charlie Cooke, and they were Scottish! But the supporters bought into that, and I think they’d love it now.’ They did boo Harris once.

‘Stanley Matthews was playing his last game in London. He was in his late 40s and we tried to rough him up. Stan was such a legend that our own fans turned on us!’

Those same fans were soon serenading ‘Chopper’, a nickname even his grandkids use to this day. ‘I was speaking at a dinner and a woman put her hand up, “Excuse me, Mr Harris, why did they call you ‘Chopper’?” ‘I told her, “Sorry, it’s not what you think… it’s because I scythed people down from behind!”

Harris mourned the loss of Gordon Banks, and he was one opponent who would vouch for the defender’s ability. ‘I was a young left half and my first goal was past Gordon, 25 yards out and it flew in the top corner. It’s a shame they then made it my job to stop people scoring, I only got 13 goals in the end.’

The plaque behind the Shed says 14? ‘I noticed that, someone owes me a goal bonus…’ Any such back payment would barely buy him a pint now. He did, though, win a £50 bet with John Terry when he failed to beat Chelsea’s appearance record, finishing on 717.

‘I know that plaque says I’ve got 795, but if he’d got too close I would have claimed those Anglo-Scottish Cup games that were never included! What they earn today doesn’t bother me. I’m glad I played when I did, it was a man’s game, you gave as good as you got. I loved every minute.’