Chelsea – THE KIT RAIL

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?

Joey Jones – Wales 76′

Winner of the English First Division, a UEFA Cup and two European Cups, Welsh full back Joey Jones won it all at club level over a three-year spell with Liverpool but that is not where it started for Jones. At the age of seventeen Joey would start his career in Wales with Wrexham AFC where he would play just under one hundred games during his first spell at the club. It was also at Wrexham where Jones would win his first piece of silverware, the Welsh Cup in 1974-75.

Credit –
https://www.liverpoolfc.com/news/announcements/264257-rome-1977-through-the-eyes-of-the-11-reds-heroes

After becoming a success at Liverpool, Jones would return to Wrexham for a second stint and later would retire at Wrexham after a third spell at the club. In between his second and third spell in Wales, Joey would play for Chelsea from 1982-85, where he would win the English Second division in 1983-84, and played for Huddersfield Town from 1985-87.

Joey Jones would play for the Wales first team for over a decade, winning a total of seventy-two caps and scoring just the one goal which would come in 1982 in a 4-4 draw with Yugoslavia. The jersey we are looking at here is from a Wales versus Scotland Under 23’s game in Wrexham where Joey would be placed up against Liverpool teammate and Scotland international Alan Hansen. This jersey was swapped with Willie Pettigrew after the match which Scotland won by 3 goals to 2, with the Scotland goals coming from Willie Pettigrew (2) and Tommy Craig.

Credit – https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/669347563348263422/

The top is all red to match the colour of the Welsh Dragon on the badge which uses a green border to follow the colours in the national flag. The yellow number on the back also matches the Admiral brand sponsor. This top is identical to Wales previous two home kits apart from the brand changing from Umbro to Bukta and then to Admiral, where the top was only worn twice with Admiral wanting to hold off the release of their new home kit until the Wales first team were playing. Admiral would move from this jersey to the famous Wales tramline Admiral top with the branding on the collar, as shown above.