Tag: English

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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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British Club Tops

John Sutton – Scottish Cup Final 2011

On the 126th Scottish Cup final Motherwell made their way to Hampden where they would come up against Celtic in Scottish football’s most prestigious knockout competition.

This jersey comes from John Sutton who had a terrific campaign as he finished the Scottish Cup as the competitions top goal scorer with six goals out of Motherwell’s 14 goals en route to the final. He would score in all games except the quarter final replay with Dundee Utd and unfortunately in the final against Celtic as the well lost 3-0 which would be Neil Lennon’s first trophy as Celtic manager.

Over the course of Sutton’s Motherwell career he would play just over 200 games for the steelmen and score a respectable 78 times. Arriving the first time from Wycombe Wanderers after spending a good spell in Scotland with St Mirren. After the Scottish Cup final, Sutton would move on to Hearts where he would find himself back at Fir Park in another three years.

After Motherwell, Sutton would move to St Johnstone and St Mirren for a second spell before moving to their local rivals Greenock Morton where he would retire in 2019 to begin his coaching career.

Made by Puma, this top uses Motherwell’s iconic hoop around the middle of the body which has featured on most home tops of recent times. Another great thing about this top is the Phil O’Donnell signature just above the Puma badge which speaks for itself.

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British Club Tops

John Ruddy – Motherwell 09/10

Starting his career with Cambridge United, he would only play the one season before getting his move to the Premier League with Everton for a fee around £250,000. While at Everton Ruddy would go on loan a total of nine times but his most successful spell would be his last, moving up to Scotland with Motherwell.

Starting off as an initial 6-month loan in summer of 2009, Ruddy would take the first team spot in his stride, doing so well that he would extend his stay for the rest of the season.

Ruddy would finish the season with 15 clean sheets in 34 appearances with one of the highlights of this season coming in the second last game of the season, a 12 goal thriller against Hibernian at Fir Park. Hibs would go 6-2 up with Motherwell leaving it late with a 90+3 screamer from another Everton loanee Lukas Jutkiewicz.

After leaving Motherwell, Ruddy would move to Norwich to work under former Motherwell man Paul Lambert. In his first season with the canaries, he would become pivotal in Norwich’s promotion to the Premier League. Ruddy would also be voted Norwich’s Players Player of the Season in his first Premier League season keeping them in the league with a very respectable 12th place finish.

He would make his England debut against against Italy in a friendly in August 2012 after he was ruled out of Euro 2012 due to a broken finger but things worked out as he married his wife Laura on 2 June 2012. Prior to the Euro 2012 tournament, he jokingly cited breaking his finger as the reason he was able to have his wedding on that date.

Currently 34, Ruddy is backup keeper at Wolves but was key to helping them get back into the Premier League as he won the 17/18 Championship Golden Glove with 24 clean sheets and represented Wolves in the PFA Team of the Year. He was then replaced by Portugal goalkeeper Rui Patricio in their return to the Premier League.

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British Club Tops

Marvin Johnson – 15/16

The man who made Fir Park twist and shout, Marvin arrived in Motherwell in February of the 14/15 season from Conference League team Kidderminster Harriers FC. He would play over 50 games where he would be deployed in every position down that left hand side from left forward to left back. Only scoring six goals during his time at Fir Park although one of these will go down in the history of Motherwell Football Club.

At the end of the 14/15 season, Ian Baraclough poorly guided Motherwell to 11th in the league after Stuart McCall left to join a confident Rangers side who they would meet in the playoffs and were hungry to get back to the top. A 3-1 victory for the Well’ away from home was a massive help for their stay in the league and gave them hope for the second leg.

It was during this second leg where Johnson would cement his legacy in claret and amber. In the 52nd minute, Johnson would cut in from the left and try a shot from a fair distance out and a deflection off one of the Rangers defenders saw the ball fly up and dip over Cammy Bell after comically trying to punch the ball away. After that goal went in, Motherwell ran riot and finished the game 3-0.

The season after, where this top is from, was better for Motherwell as they finished a much more respectable 5th place in the league with Johnson leaving for Oxford Utd for an undisclosed fee which was good business for the Well’ as they were able to get a sell on percentage as he moved to Championship side Middlesbrough. Johnson now plays for English side Sheffield Wednesday after being released by Middlesbrough.

I thought of showing this top now as it is going back to the pinstripe but a proper claret and amber one and not a black and amber like this seasons which has mixed reviews. I think the problem with this seasons away top is so mixed as this top is still in recent memory and it is such a nice top that shows the clubs true colours.

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British Club Tops

Nottingham Forest – 02/03

The 02/03 season saw Scottish attacking midfielder Eoin Jess arrive at Nottingham Forest who would finish 6th in his first season, just inside the play-off spots, however they were defeated in the first round by Sheffield Utd. The 18 time capped Scot would go on to play 86 times for Forest over a 3 season spell which saw promotion hopes turn into league relegation.

Starting his career in Aberdeen, he would play over 200 games for the don’s before making his first move down to the Premier League with Coventry City where he would play along side fellow Scots Gary McAllister and Gordon Strachan as they finished just above the drop zone in 17th place. After that one season in England, Jess would return north to Aberdeen where he would bring his total appearances with the club to over 300, ranking himself 11th in the Aberdeen all time appearance rankings.

A season loan and then a permanent move to Bradford City followed before he reached Nottingham Forest. Arriving as promotion hopefuls, it was not long before they were relegated down to the third tier of English football. They would stay in league one until they were promoted back to the championship in 07/08 where they most recently finished in a respectable 9th.

Nottingham Forest had began using Umbro kits in 1986 with them using their famous red as the main home colour but the away and third kits would catch the eye during the Umbro tenure as they would go through yellow, blue, white and green kits with some being more bizarre than the next. Forest would finish with Umbro and go back to Adidas before moving to current kit makers Macron.

This kit also features the sponsor of ‘Pinnacle Insurance’ who sponsored the top for five seasons between 98/99 to 02/03.

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British International Tops

Trevor Cherry – England 76′

Trevor Cherry was an English full back that could be played anywhere along the back line. Starting his career with Huddersfield Town, Cherry would make the move to Leeds for £100,000 where he would play 399 games and go onto captain the club.

Winning his first cap in 1976 against Wales with this jersey coming from his game against Scotland the same year in the Home Championship.

Cherry would go down as the first England player to be sent off in an international friendly as England played Argentina in 1977 with Cherry getting two teeth knocked out after the rash challenge on Daniel Bertoni who then decided to punch Cherry in the mouth.

Cherry was part of the England squad for the 1980 European Championships in Italy but was restricted to a single substitute appearance against Spain which would be his last international cap.

This top comes from the 1976 Home Championships where Scotland Hosted England at Hampden. Scotland would win the game with goals coming from centre half Gordon McQueen and clinical striker Kenny Dalglish with a penalty from Mick Channon giving England a goal back in the 87th minute.

Admiral only produced two England home kits with this being the first and the last being the 1982 jersey that also features on The Kit Rail under Terry Butcher.

As for this top, it’s a classic England home top using the main three colour red, white and blue with red and blue stripes travelling down the sleeve and also around the collar.

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Club Tops European

Michael Higdon – NEC Nijmegen 13′

NEC Nijmegen badge

Englishman Michael Higdon started his career at Crewe Alexandra before making his move to Scotland where he would play with Falkirk and St Mirren, scoring 15 and 18 goals respectively before finding his form for with Motherwell.

Higdon (right) celebrating with Humphrey (left). Motherwell Legend Michael Higdon retires from football. : MotherwellFC (reddit.com)

It is with The Steelmen where Higdon would become a cult hero as he would score 13 goals in his first season and then a massive 26 league goals in the 12/13 season, where he would become Motherwell’s top goal scorer in a season since the Second World War. As a result of Higdon being so important to Motherwell’s 2nd place finish in the league, he was voted PFA Scotland’s Player’s Player of the Year.

Higdon with his PFA PPOTY award. Tam Cowan: My hero Higdon had the Mother of all hangovers – Tam Cowan – Daily Record

After leaving the Scottish side on a free, Higdon would move across the English Channel to Dutch side NEC Nijmegen. The Scouser would only play in Holland for one season but he would continue to be as prolific abroad, scoring 14 goals but this was not enough to keep Nijmegen in the Eredivise. After the season, Higdon would get his move back to England with a bid coming in from Sheffield United.

Higdon with NEC Nijmegen. Higdon leads NEC to victory — Nijmegenleeft.nl

As for this beauty, Jako have produced an instantly recognisable kit for NEC Nijmegen as the use of their classic three colours are used through this iconic shirt, with the main torso being split in two with the contrasting red and green while using the last colour, black, as the sleeves. The clubs double headed eagle is replicated from the badge and can be seen spread out over the bottom of the jersey.

At the bottom on the back, there is also a skyline of the city of Nijmegen, which is also the oldest city in Holland. This cityscape features the Nijmegen Railway Bridge, which was demolished twice during the Second World War, once by the Dutch to defend against the attacking German’s which was then rebuilt and destroyed again by the German’s as they fled the American’s. The bridge was nicknamed “Little Omaha” due to the casualties suffered on the bridge.

Categories
British International Tops

Terry Butcher – England 82′

Terry Butcher began his career in 1976 as a promising centre half for Ipswich Town, with his first England call up coming on the 31st of May 1980 in a win against Australia. He would play a total of seventy-seven games for the three lions over the course of his ten-year international career, with his final England game coming against West Germany where he was in the losing side of a penalty shootout in the semi-final of the 1990 World Cup. Butcher managed to gain seventy-seven caps for England with sixty-nine of those coming under legendary manager Sir Bobby Robson and would captain England on seven outings with three coming at the 1990 World Cup.

Infamous picture of Butcher covered in blood after a World Cup qualifier vs Sweeden https://www.planetfootball.com/nostalgia/terry-butcher-that-photo-a-six-month-supply-of-washing-powder/

While playing for England, Butcher played for Ipswich Town and Glasgow Rangers. During his time at Ipswich, he won the UEFA Cup in 1980/81 also under Sir Bobby Robson’s guidance. After moving to Rangers he then won three league titles in four seasons with two Scottish Cups. After the 1990 World Cup, Butcher would leave Rangers and land his first managerial role as a player manager at Coventry City where he would become the youngest manager in the football league at 32. Coventry would narrowly avoid relegation, finishing sixteenth and after playing six times that season Butcher would announce his retirement as a player. He would later be inducted into the Rangers Hall of Fame, Ipswich Town Hall of Fame and and Scottish Football Hall of Fame.

Credit –
https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/sport/football/2457958/ray-wilkins-terry-butcher-rangers-captain-england/
http://www.sporting-heroes.net/football/ipswich-town-fc/terry-butcher-10738/league-appearances_a13309/

The top we have here was worn against Wales on the 27th of April in 1982, in Cardiff, where England won 1-0 after a goal from Trevor Francis in the 74th minute. Butcher managed to keep a clean sheet against a Wales team with the likes of Liverpool’s Ian Rush and former Liverpool player Joey Jones while England had stars such as Glenn Hoddle and Ray Wilkins on the pitch that day. This is one of only three occasions where Butcher would wear the number 5 jersey for England, preferring to wear the number 6 jersey once he was firmly established in the England set-up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqaPcfNChZI

Admiral uses England’s iconic blue and red on a plain white jersey using varying sizes of the stripes on the shoulders. The collar and cuffs follow this same colour scheme but uses much thinner stripes. The large red number stitched on to the back takes up a lot of space. Names were not used regularly on the back of English jerseys until the 1992 European Championships. When you think of England and football this is one of the iconic kits that should come straight to mind.

2 5 9 10 11 14 1970's 1990's 2000's Adidas Admiral Australia Black Blue Borussia Dortmund Celtic Chelsea Claret and Amber Diadora England English European Everton Germany Green International Italian Liverpool Macron Motherwell Netherlands Nike Orange Pony Puma Purple Rangers Red Scotland Scottish Umbro Wales White Xara Yellow