Tag: Adidas

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British Club Tops

More Than Just A Shirt

Rewind to summer 1982, outside Braidhurst High School in Motherwell. A young Junior Burns has just finished a successful season with Motherwell FC Reserves and has been rewarded with a professional contract. Feeling delighted, he gives his school friend his number 7 Motherwell shirt from the previous season’s exploits. After all there would be many more to come, wouldn’t there ??? This became our first ever match worn Motherwell FC shirt.

Unfortunately things never quite panned out for Junior, being released after two seasons with five starts and seven substitute appearances. He totalled 12 games for his boyhood heroes.

(Back Row, Second from the Right)

From those 12 appearances came the one goal October 22nd, 1983 saw Junior enter the Ibrox pitch as a substitute with the game tied at 1-1. In the 81st minute Junior popped up at the back post to steer home the winner from an Ian Alexander cross to give Motherwell a rare Ibrox victory. This game will most likely be remembered for the after match sacking of John Greig, but Junior, well, he got to live the dream that we all dreamt for ourselves.

https://youtu.be/zl2Q8333yXQ?si=LM2Yl4OYghq-98i5 (The Rangers Archives)

Fast forward to present day and a phone call from Junior. After some reminiscing there was mention that we still had hold of the jersey he gave us some 43 years ago. As mentioned earlier, Junior’s professional career never quite reached the heights that he had hoped for. Thus not allowing him any time to accumulate many souvenirs or mementos. There’s the Rangers game on YouTube but you can’t hang that on your wall or have the kids or grandkids physically hold while you relay the memories. So when Junior hinted that he would like it back, of course there was only going to be one outcome.

As collectors, we really are the keepers of history and when you have the capability to return someone’s heritage to share with a new generation of family, then that’s a wonderful gift.

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British

Super John McGinn

John McGinn is one of Scotland’s best players and has been a key figure to Steve Clarke’s national team’s major resurgence.

In 2012, John would start his career at St Mirren where he would make his professional debut against Celtic in a 5-0 defeat. Before long he would have moved to the east coast to join Hibernian for £1million, where he would be selected for his first international cap at the age of 21. This came as a 1-0 win against Denmark where McGinn was selected as Player of the Match.

Fast forward to today and McGinn has racked up an impressive 54 caps where he has played under managers such as Gordon Strachan, Alex McLeish and Steve Clarke with the latter helping him to achieve his 16 goal tally for Scotland by playing him in a more advanced role on the pitch compared to his deeper role at Aston Villa, which shows his midfield versatility.

This jersey comes from Scotland’s most recent success against Spain where Scott McTominay bagged himself a brace in a 2-0 win at Hampden. McGinn was substituted by Lewis Ferguson after running the midfield for 83 minutes. McGinn was rated an 8/10 this game with only McTominay ranking higher. As a whole, this game will go down as a historic win for Scotland and will be a massive boost for qualifying for Euro 2024 in Germany.

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British Club Tops

The Prem is Back 22/23

As the English Premier League season begins again for a new dramatic season, The Kit Rail are going to be looking back at some premier league greats and their match worn tops. A big thanks again to Graham Alexander for a loan of his collection.

Starting us off is a probably one of the best midfielders to have played in the Premier League without ever winning it. Steven Gerrard made over 500 league appearances for Liverpool, scoring 120 league goals and recorded 92 assists. Unfortunately the closest he would get to the title would be in the 13/14 campaign where Liverpool finished 2nd, 2 points behind eventual winners Manchester City.

Now inducted into the hall of fame, Gerrard would carry Liverpool through a lot of tough times and will unfortunately be remembered for slipping at the last hurdle against Chelsea and letting Man City leapfrog Liverpool in the league on the second last game of the season after the red’s drew 3-3 with Crystal Palace.

The next midfielder and Gerrard’s long time rival is none other than Hall of Fame graduate, Frank Lampard. The Premier leagues highest scoring midfielder comes in with 609 Premier League appearances with the majority coming from his time at Chelsea but many forget about his time at West Ham and his single season at Manchester City.

Winning the Premier League a total of three times, once in the 09/10 season under Don Carlo Ancelotti and back to back under the management of “the special one” Jose Mourinho in 04/05 and 05/06. Defending a Premier League title an impressive feat not many players have achieved in their careers unless it is with the current Man City team or the dominant Sir Alex Ferguson Man Utd that wrecked havoc in the Prem.

Speaking of the dominance of Sir Alex’s Manchester United, you cannot speak about the talent of both Steven Gerard and Frank Lampard without mentioning Paul Scholes. The ELEVEN time Premier League winner made 499 appearances in the league for Manchester United and won 321 of those games, giving him a 64% win rate when he was involved in the team, in comparison Gerrard’s win rate was 50% and Lampard’s was 57% which is still a very impressive achievement for all three men when you think about some of the players they have played alongside, both all time greats and absolute stinkers.

Originally retiring in 2011, Scholes showed his interest in coming out of retirement for a season after training with Man Utd’s reserves. He would be offered a contract due to the current injury crisis that plagued Old Trafford. The January of 2012 would see Scholes return to play in his 18th Premier League season before fully committing to his retirement at the end of the 12/13 campaign where he finished his 19th and final season in the league, an achievement that only fellow teammate Ryan Giggs has surpassed due to his 21 consecutive seasons in the EPL.

Each English midfielder has had an extraordinary career in football, winning lots of trophies in England and in Europe such as League Cups, FA Cups, Europa League’s and the almighty Champions League. Two of the three also making over 100 appearances for their country with the latter still respectively making 66 appearances.

The question will always remain though, who was the best England midfielder of their generation?

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European International Tops Uncategorized

Thierry Henry – 2006 – Scotland vs France

The Euro 2008 qualifying campaign is a tough one to look back on as a Scotland fan, imagine getting your hopes up beating France twice before throwing it all away in the second last game against Georgia leaving it down to beating World Champion’s Italy on the last day of qualifying.

With that disappointment in the past now, we have some fond memories to look back on now including both historic victories against France, Home and Away.

This jersey comes from the home game at Hampden where Gary Caldwell netted the only goal of the game, in front of 57,000 fans, from a Paul Hartley corner in the 67th minute. For me this top is an absolute winner and one of the best French kits produced this side of the millennium. My favourite thing about it has to be the badge with the teams and date embroidered underneath is just a sheer touch of class by adidas.

Thierry Henry lined up along side fellow compatriots Eric Abidal, Frank Ribery, Claude Makelele, Lillian Thuram and Patrick Vieira but all this firepower couldn’t force its way through the defence of Caldwell and Weir.

The ex Arsenal and Barcelona forward gained 123 caps for France where he ranks 3rd on the al time appearance list, behind Hugo Lloris and Lilian Thuram. Henry also holds the record for most goals for France at 51 goals scored.

The club career of Thierry Henry is also outstanding, having played at the very top for most of his career with Juventus, Barcelona, Monaco and most notably Arsenal. It is at Arsenal where Henry really peaked, winning two Premier Leagues (one invincible) and two FA Cup’s, finishing runner up in the 2003 Ballon D’or, just behind Juventus star Pavel Nedved.

Thierry would win the Champions League at the second time of asking after his first ended in a 2-1 defeat to Barcelona in 2006 with an 81st minute goal from Belletti sealed their fate. Two years later he would arrive at the Nou Camp and a year later getting to the final in Rome where Henry would call back the years to terrorise Manchester United once again.

In all, Thierry Henry is one of the best to ever do it with 360 goals in 789 games, a World Cup, European Championship, Champions League, multiple league winning medals and golden boots. He will also go down as one of my favourite players which isn’t as much of an achievement compared to the other awards listed.

Shout out to Graeme Alexander for lending me his collection of tops. Some more icons of the game coming soon.

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British International Tops

SOD – Scotland’s Right WingBack

What a run Stephen O’Donnell has had over the past year or so, starting off all the way back to November 2020 where he was part of the Scotland team to defeat Israel and Serbia, on penalties, to progress to an international tournament for the first time since 1998.

As 2020 ended and 2021 began, the right wingback position was up for constant debate between the Motherwell man and Nathan Patterson who looks to be the future for the position but hadn’t exactly done much at club level, only playing 7 games in the league for Rangers all season. Some thought this was enough to merit a start for young Patterson as Motherwell had an underwhelming season themselves.

As we know SOD played against the Czech Republic in the first game of Euro 2020 and was used as a scapegoat for what was a poor overall team performance. The draw with England must have been his highlight of 2021 as he managed to pocket “generational talent” Phil Foden and One Hundred Million pound left winger Jack Grealish for the full 90 minutes and giving the latter a few nippy challenges in the process.

We all know how the Croatia game went and we tumbled out of the tournament only scoring one goal but our chances of qualifying for the World Cup this year should make and Scot excited. After an eventful end to the group qualifying saw Scotland be drawn against Euro 2020 quarterfinalists Ukraine then either Austria or Wales if we progress.

This jersey comes from Scotland’s clash with Israel where Manchester United’s Scott McTominay scored a last minute winner to send Hampden into a frenzy. O’Donnell was dropped from this game but I would still expect Steve Clarke to continue putting his faith into the Motherwell captain’s ability and hopefully get him a trip to Qatar.

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British

Scotland vs Israel WC Qualifier 09/10/21

This post today comes from the hangover after a hard fought game from Scotland yesterday which gave a nation Hope to be able to qualify for the World Cup next year in Qatar.

My experience from the game started by getting the train to Mount Florida from Glasgow Central and what better way to hype yourself up for a Scotland game by listening to bagpipes and singing songs about John McGinn.

The buzz in the stadium was ripped out the hearts of the fans within the first five minutes which left me with the dread that it was going to be one of those games. A super strike from the main man John McGinn brought some hope back but some shocking defending was frustrating to watch as we conceded another making it a higher mountain to climb especially with our Aussie lad Lyndon Dykes missing a crucial penalty.

I can happily say the second half was a much better watch with Scotland pushing much higher up the pitch and playing much better football with Dykes redeeming himself and getting his goal. It was certainly an experience seeing VAR in use for the first time in the flesh. It was over after the longest two minutes of our lives and of course the goal was given as Israel were just seen to be cheating, again.

An 88th minute miss from McGinn made it seem that all was over but an added six minute of injury time was seen as a massive boost and our favourite Manc McTominay had us all chanting his name after his added time winner.

Suppose I can’t finish a blog without talking about what tops me and Lauren had on. I went with the new away top as I had just bought it in Edinburgh airport last Thursday and it is a belter but Lauren went a bit classier with JD’s Score Draw 96’ replica home top.

I think I can speak for everyone when I say we all had a boogie after full time and I hope everyone in the tartan army enjoy their night last night. Roll on the Faroe Islands Tuesday.

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British Club Tops

Motherwell 76 & 81

On todays feature we’re showing off two pretty unique Motherwell tops with one coming from the late 70’s and the other from the early 80’s.

The first being Admiral’s first away kit worn by the well but as you can see there is no badge on this top and instead the Admiral badge is on the white side of the top instead of on the stripe. It wouldn’t be until later in the season when the badge was introduced.

The first time this top was ever worn was in the Scottish Cup Semi Final against Rangers in 1976 where Motherwell would go 2-0 up after an hour into the game before crumbling to the Gers and losing 3-2 with the last coming in the 85th minute. Joe Wark and Willie Pettigrew both played with the latter scoring Motherwell’s second that night.

Motherwell finished a respectable 4th, 3 points off Hibernian who would claim the second UEFA Cup spot that season.

The second top being showcased is an Adidas number from the 81/82 when Motherwell were promoted back into the top division after beating Killie to the title by ten points. They also managed a +56 goal difference after scoring 92 goals. During the season, they eventually changed this top to a darker yellow top with a tighter neck.

This top was worn by Junior Burns who only started a few games for the well but did manage to score a winning goal at Ibrox which resulted in John Greig resigning from the Gers.

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British Club Tops

Fulham – 02/03

For this post we are throwing it back to the early 2000’s with a Fulham top from their time in the FA Barclaycard Premiership. This season would be a regular season for the lily whites as they finished the season in 14th position, one place lower than the season previous.

Looking at that team now you would probably have placed them a lot higher as they had brilliant players such as Edwin Van Der Sar, Louis Saha and Steed Malbranque. This poor season would see manager Jean Tigana sacked in the April of 2003 with recently retired Welsh Defender Chris Coleman taking over who would guide the team into the top half of the division in 9th in the 03/04 season.

This jersey is from Scotland midfielder John Collins who played 65 games for Fulham before retiring in 2004. Before playing for Fulham, Collins would play in the Premier League with Everton and also played in France with Monaco. He is mainly remembered for his time at Celtic where he won the Scottish Cup in 1995.

Collins played 58 times for Scotland, scoring 12 goals with one of them coming on the opening day of the 98′ World Cup in France with a penalty against Brazil. Unfortunately Scotland never made it past the groups and still never have made it past the groups in any major tournament.

Made by Adidas, this Fulham top uses their famous lily white as the main body with the contrasting black used for the thick collar, side of the top and inside of the arms. The red in the badge is also used at the front of the neck. This was Adidas’ last kit with Fulham from that deal but Fulham brought back Adidas strips and have been with them since 2013 after moving from Puma, Airness, Nike and Kappa.

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Club Tops Rest of the World

ML1 in the MLS

We are going to dive deep into four of ex-Motherwell players, two from recent memory and two from back in the 70’s, that have made the move to the over the Atlantic to America.

Starting off we’ve got current Vancouver Whitecaps midfielder Andy Rose. Arriving from Coventry City before arriving at Fir Park, Rose would go on to play 40 league matches for Motherwell while helping them reach both League Cup final and Scottish Cup final, where they would put up a fight but would be beaten on both occasions by Celtic.

Rose would leave Motherwell in the winter of 2018 to join Whitecaps where he has played 38 games. When at Motherwell I felt that Rose was a consistent performer and really helped the club getting to both cup finals.

Another player that was part of those two finals is Motherwell academy graduate Chris Cadden. Playing over 110 games for the steelmen, Cadden has also been capped 12 times for the Scotland under 21’s and even gaining two first team caps in friendly games against Peru and Mexico.

After leaving Motherwell, Cadden was picked up by Columbus Crew and immediately loaned out for the 19/20 season to Oxford United before returning to be part of the squad that would win the 2020 MLS Cup. In January 2021, Cadden returned to Scotland to play for Edinburgh side Hibernian.

However before these two, Motherwell had another two players during the 1970’s that have took the trip across the ocean. First off was defender Willie Watson who started out at Manchester Utd before moving to Maimi Toros on loan just before his move to his hometown of Motherwell where he would play over 100 games before moving to Dundee and eventually back over to America to play for indoor side Phoenix Inferno.

The last player to have moved was centre half Willie McVie who played for Motherwell between 1975-1979, racking up an impressive 87 appearances before moving to Canada to play for Toronto Blizzard in the NASL.

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European International Tops

Sweden – 98/99

Currently ranked 18th in the world, the Swedish Men’s National Team have been making a name for themselves recently as they have managed to qualify for both knockout rounds of the current Euro 2020 and the 2018 World Cup under head coach Janne Andersson who took over the blue and yellow in 2016 after they finished bottom of their group in Euro 2016.

Unfortunately Sweden never qualified for the 1998 World Cup and this kit was never displayed on the world stage, however they did wear it during their qualification for Euro 2000 which they did end up qualifying for. Two loses to Italy and Belgium and a draw against Turkey meant Sweden finished bottom of their group with the one point.

During this time, Sweden did have two soon to be world class talents in their squad with Henrik Larsson and Freddie Ljungberg being their two powerhouses. Larsson was just at the youth of his Celtic career while Ljungberg had just been signed by Arsenal. Over the years, both players were first team regulars with Larsson gaining 106 caps and Ljungberg gaining a respectable 75 caps.

Ljungberg would go on to lift two Premier League titles, one being Arsenal’s invincible season, and three FA Cups while totalling 241 Premier League appearances for Arsenal and West Ham. On the other hand, Henrik Larsson would lift four Scottish Premierships, with Celtic, and two La liga titles and a Champions League with FC Barcelona while claiming four Swedish Player of the Year awards from 2001-2004.

As for this top, the thing that stood out to me straight away was the collar. A nice open 90’s style collar that opens at the front showing a smaller badge on the blue underneath. Also you don’t find many tops nowadays that have laces on the chest which I think makes this look stunning.

Other details you will find on this jersey is faint lines traveling down the strip with the Sweden badge facing upwards and downwards. Also the Adidas three stripes travelling down the sleeves, around the collar and on the laces on the front.

In all I think the colour combination for Sweden kits are a delight and I am glad I managed to pick this one up from Classic football Shirts during my time in London. It really is the worlds biggest football shirt collection.