They don’t often let journalists interview players from the team they support, but I was lucky enough to meet Peter Crouch for an interview in this month’s Loaded. Look how stupidly small I look next to him (I’m 5′9″).
We were recreating that Skinner and Baddiel World Cup thing with custard...
My new blog
Due to a conflict of interests, my football shirt blogs now have a blog of their own!
Click on here to visit: Mud. Sweat. Badges.
Or just enjoy some photographs of my collection below. I just finished the 2008/09 collection, the full set of home shirts, long-sleeved and short-sleeved, UEFA and Premiership variants, all match-worn player shirts, fresh from the dressing room. If you want to see the other shirts I have in my collection, click here
Match Worn Pavyluchenko Shirt 2008
Match Worn Pavyluchenko Shirt 2008
Four football-mad writers swap their beloved teams for their hated rivals. Lifelong Spurs fan Jeff Maysh pulls on an Arsenal shirt, and heads to the Emirates on a certain suicide mission!
For the full story, click below…
(more…)
Due to a conflict of interests, my football shirt blogs now have a blog of their own!
Click on here to visit: Mud. Sweat. Badges.
A photograph taken for official Spurs magazine 'Hotspur'
I used to pick up shirts worn by players you see, and I got carried away. At one point I had about 200- mainly from my beloved Spurs. As you can probably guess I’m now considering selling the lot. Apart from Klinsmann’s debut shirt, I think, which is currently on display at the National Football Museum, Preston. Do read on…
Here are some Spurs match worn numbers: (click one to see a nice gallery)
The main shirt is probably this…
JURGEN KLINSMANN MATCH-WORN SPURS DEBUT SHIRT WEARING THIS SHIRT JURGEN ‘DIVED’- ONE OF FOOTBALL’S MOST FAMOUS MOMENTS. SPURS vs SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY, 1994
Jurgen Klinsmann's Debut Shirt vs Sheffield Wed. 1994
It is currently on a long-term loan to the National Football Museum, Preston. Click here, to see the news piece about its arrival.
The next shirt is incredibly rare. Only a handful were made for players in the 2001 Worthington Cup Final with Blackburn due to a colour clash. It reportedly cost Adidas £100,000 to do this in the factory. This belongs to a substitute player, although this hardly affects its value to collectors.
A one-off yellow kit created for the 2001 Worthington Cup Final
Some more special Spurs shirts below: Klinsmann’s yellow away shirt 1994, Sheringham’s last ever Spurs shirt (signed, “300 Not Out!” in reference to his goal tally) and even Teddy’s first Spurs shirt of ‘94- which he wore for about four months, scoring many goals.
Below, Ossie Ardiles centenery year shirt. It’s currently framed in my bedroom.
Ossie Ardiles Match Worn Spurs Centenery Year 1982, the year of my birth.
As well as Spurs shirts, I used to find myself in possession of visiting player’s kit that was swapped with Spurs players, including this rather fine Beckham jersey. Inside, David has cut the inner layer away, as he found it uncomfortable, and there are some other quirks to the shirt making it completely unlike the replicas. No, it doesn’t smell of Posh.
One of David Beckham's shirts, from the Spurs kit room
These are some other odds and sods, including a Barcelona shirt worn in a Champions league semi-final, and a sponsorless Chelsea European shirt from just after September 11th, when they had to remove their ‘airline’ sponsor amid security fears.
Below is Graeme Le Saux’s England shirt from the World Cup clash with Argentina in which Beckham was sent off. The shorts are worn, the shirt is his spare (Le Saux wore the short sleeve one in the match- they get two).
Le Saux's shirt and shorts, England Versus Argentina, World Cup 1998
If you’re interested in match worn shirts, why not join my mailing list and I’ll update you when I get new stuff in.