“It appears that Fulham’s kit designer is having as bad a season as their defensive coach,” muses Richard Hilton. “Fulham have worn five different kit combinations in their first five away matches of the season (red/red; black/black; blue/blue; white/black; white/white). Is this a record?”
It turns out Fulham’s kit designer still has a little more meddling to do, Richard. Here’s Chris Oakley. “I can confirm that they have some way to go yet! I’ve been creating some illustrations for Rochdale AFC’s official matchday programme, The Voice of Spotland, which show they had seven kits during the 1997-98 season. Two of them used elements of a kit worn two seasons before.”
In March this year, Cologne wore their seventh different shirt of the season in their Bundesliga match against RB Leipzig, a newly-designed black one, because all of the other six they had worn would have clashed with their opponents’ attire, apparently. In the 2016-17 season, Cologne, who were relegated in April, had worn red and white stripes, a plain red away shirt, a grey and yellow third strip, a red and white pinstriped Europa League shirt, a special 70th anniversary reversible white strip, a 2017 season dark grey away shirt to avoid clashing with Augsburg and, finally, the new one mentioned above. We’re not sure if the number of kit combinations were greater than seven but we do know that six of the jerseys were available to buy and probably helped the club’s bank balance. Kerching!
If we’re looking for a potential king of multiple kit combinations in a single season, perhaps we should not be surprised that Aston Villa appear to be out there in front. Their claret and blue often leads to a clash with opponents wearing red, blue or both.
And, as detailed on the Museum of Jerseys website, using only their home and away shirts, they managed nine different kit combinations in the 2011-12 season: 1) Claret and blue home top, white shorts, black socks; 2) White away top, claret shorts, white socks 3) Claret and blue home top, claret shorts, claret socks; 4) Claret and blue home top, blue shorts, blue socks; 5) White away top, claret shorts, claret socks; 6) White away top, blue shorts, blue socks; 7) Claret and blue home top, white shorts, blue socks; 8) Claret and blue home top, claret shorts, white socks; 9) White away top, blue shorts, white socks. Beat that!
Winning the same title with multiple teams
“Vanderlei Luxemburgo won the Brasileirão with four different teams (Palmeiras, Corinthians, Cruzeiro, Santos),” writes Ben Janeson. “Has any manager won the same league with five (or more) different teams?”
“Gordon Igesund comes close,” notes Ian Williams. “He led Manning Rangers to the South Africa PSL title in the 1996-97 season. In 2000-01 he won it again with Orlando Pirates, and in 2001-02 won it with Santos, and with Sundowns in 2006-07. He then took Swallows to second place in 2011-12.”
Mind the gap
@TheKnowledge_GU Wikipedia (https://t.co/52UA8Halj5) informs me that Shankhouse FC of Cramlington were champions of the Northern Football Alliance in 1891-92. It was 2004-05 when they next won it. Are there longer gaps than 113 years between victories in the same competition?
— Rob Shaw (@WhatIsRobShaw) October 19, 2018
Jamie Watt has a recent contender to beat this by just one year. “I propose Hibs and their 1902 and 2016 Scottish Cup wins.”
Can anyone beat 114 years? If so you know where to find us on email or tweet @TheKnowledge_GU.
Consecutive shirt number scorers (another 7-11)
“Inside a cold and wet Selhurst Park I watched on as Wimbledon somehow scored five goals against my beloved Watford. Scorers for Wimbledon were in numerical order from 7-11,” writes Nick Burcher. “It was a miserable match for me, but probably quite interesting statistically for you in response to your straight flush of goal-scorers question!”
Indeed, and here’s Derek McKenzie with a little more detail from that night on 4 December 1999. “It was a rare bright spot in the tenure of Egil Olsen and featured goals from players wearing shirt numbers 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 – namely Carl Cort, Robbie Earle, John Hartson, Jason Euell and Marcus Gayle. All the more notable for its occurrence in the era of squad numbers when it is rare enough for numbers 7-11 to all be on the field, far less all scoring goals.
Knowledge archive
“A friend of mine was telling me the other day about an Icelandic referee who disallowed a goal because his teeth had fallen out. Am I right to assume he was talking bobbins?” asked Jon Bennett in 2008.
Technically you would be right to assume that, Jon, but only because the referee in question was actually Danish. Henning Erikstrup had been preparing to whistle for full-time on Noerager’s 4-3 win over Ebeltoft when his false teeth fell out of his mouth and on to the pitch. Ebeltoft equalised moments later, only for Erikstrup, who had not even seen the goal, to immediately rule it out on the grounds that he would have whistled before it went in. “I had to get my teeth back before some player put his big foot on them,” parped the official afterwards when asked why he didn’t just whistle without his teeth in.
Can you help?
“Brothers Richard and Rob Witschge both got 31 Dutch caps, which got me thinking if there have been any other interesting coincidences involving footballing siblings,” mails Tom Mann.
“Las Palmas and Tenerife are based thousands of miles from mainland Spain, yet play in the Spanish divisions. Are there any other examples, or are there any teams that play in a national league which are further from the mainland than the two mentioned?” asks Jon Pople.
“What’s the fastest ever debut goal from signing to the ball being put in the back of the net? Has anyone ever signed at midnight on transfer deadline day and then scored the next day?” asks Harry Turner.
As I looked at the Canton Tower whilst sat in the North End of Guangzhou Evergrande's Tianhe stadium earlier today I wondered... are there any other stadiums in the world where you can see a famous landmark from your seat? @TheKnowledge_GU pic.twitter.com/3iXbPcGmhW
— Jack Tanner (@mrjacktanner) November 11, 2018
examples of games turned on their head by particularly smart/pro-active ball boys/girls
— andy lawn (@andylawn) November 13, 2018
• Email your questions and answers to knowledge@theguardian.com or tweet @TheKnowledge_GU.
