Man Utd – THE KIT RAIL

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.